Treasure Box Wednesday: The Great Outdoors


There's a bright golden haze on the meadow, and the corn is as high as an elephant's eye... No, we're not in "Oklahoma." We're right here in Western Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. I went to a picnic out a the farm of a friend's uncle. And I thought as a minor change of pace, today we'd take a look at some of the treasures of late summer/early autumn.

Like these stripey monarch butterfly caterpillars...

They're just hanging around, munch, munch, munching away, storing up the food they need to transform into a bright orange butterflies, and flutterby south for the season...


This fellow is already well on his way to his brand new look for fall...


The gourds are out slightly early this year, and it looks like it's been a bounty...


These spaceship shaped squash are a good six to eight inches in diameter...


The tomatoes are getting big, beautiful and oh-so-ripe. I had one of them, in fact, in a BLT on Tuesday night. Mmmm, can't beat those garden tomatoes!


The pumpkins here are HUGE... Several of them are about hundred-pounders. I'm really not sure how they're going to move them. I know my friend's brother has his sights set on a really ginormous jack o'lantern!...


They'd planted several different kinds this last year, and they seem to be doing really well.


Across the street from our picnic, some four-legged friends paused for a nibble...


...And a photo op!


Just a couple of other things I wanted to remember to tell you before I go. For those who check out this site through the main www.thriftshopromantic.com homepage, I won't be updating that section until Tuesday, as it's fairly involved. I will have a new Sunday post, though, set to publish automatically, here at http://thriftshopromantic.blogspot.com -- so I hope you'll pop by on Sunday anyway!

Why all this automation and pre-planning? Well, I'm off to meet some of my blogging friends in Philadelphia this weekend. So here's hoping I'll come back to you with some great pictures, some fun new information, and a lot of good stories!


And otherwise, I hope I'll see you this Sunday. I will be checking my email, so know if you email, I'll try to respond as soon as I can.

Have a lovely one, my friends!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is the farm near a nuclear power plant? wow they are some big vegetables!! hehe
Have a lovely weekend away and drive safely :)

Miss Shirl said...

Have loads of fun!

Anonymous said...

Evie- heh, well, you never know... At least they're not "killer tomatoes" so maybe it's better the less I know about the groundwater. :)

Shirley- Thanks a bunch! :)

Da Old Man said...

Oooh oooh oooh, I know what it's called when you refered to them as flutterbys. I do. Really. :)
You thought you could sneak that by, huh? Nosireebob. And I didn't even have to look it up.

Deb said...

Wow.....those pumpkins are huge! Sounds like you had a really nice Labor Day. Hope you have a great time with your blogging friends this week!

Debbie

Anonymous said...

Da Old Man- Heh, I know you're on top o' things, Joe. You're the sharpest crayon in the box! :)

Debbie- Thanks so much!! Hopefully I'll have stories for when I come back. :)

Anonymous said...

Lovely post! cheers...Pam

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Pam! It was absolutely lovely to hear from you earlier. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh my word, what an amazing photographer you are as well. These are crystal clear and so vibrant. I love the photos. I thought at first it was your garden. I love the photo of the gourds with the dappled light on them, just stunning. It all looks so autumn-ish. And the horses are incredible, especially the way your photographed them.

Also loved the photos in the previous post. I love that kind of look. I could settle right in there and NEVER move.

Anonymous said...

Robin- Oh, gosh, thanks, but it's really the camera. It's got this excellent close-up photo feature which does just amazing things with close-up flowers and insects. I don't really know how I survived without it all these years,