On the Homefront: Pumpkin Patch, Horse of a Different Color, and a Puerto Rican Poinsettia

I am still working on the Weekend Wardrobe post (too much going on at the moment, including deck maintenance and trying to decide if I need to make a quick trip to New Mexico).  I hope to have it ready for tomorrow, but until then I thought I would post a quick picture of my prolific pumpkin patch.  Our weather has turned drier since this photo was taken, so the plants are drying out but the pumpkins themselves have started to grow rapidly and ripen.  Like last year, it looks like there will be about a dozen, and once again they will probably stink like the manure pile they are growing in, but since they stay outside they will still make excellent fall décor for the yard!

Summer has also had a profound effect on the color of my normally black horse.  Horses come in two variations of black, the so-called true or jet black, which has a bluish cast and stays the same year-round (the black mare I owned years ago was that color), and the more common fading black, which has a reddish base and will become lighter when exposed to sunlight.  Obviously my current horse is of the latter variety, and this year he has become especially light-colored, sometimes looking almost golden in the right light.  He even seems to have a bit of dappling in his coat, which I had never noticed before!

And jumping to a completely unrelated topic (because this is my blog and I can do that if I want!), the above image was taken by my husband at the field station in Puerto Rico where he has been doing ecological research for decades.  The poinsettia on the far right in the picture (the tall plant with the red "leaves") was planted by us the very first time we visited the site (it was during the Christmas season and the poinsettia, which was very small at the time, served as our impromptu tree).  As you can see, it has grown to impressive proportions!  It reminds my husband of that long-ago Christmas past whenever he sees it - I am impressed that it has lived so long and gotten so large.

🎃🐴🎄🎃🐴🎄🎃🐴🎄🎃🐴🎄🎃🐴🎄🎃🐴🎄🎃🐴🎄🎃🐴🎄

I hope your garden is growing luxuriantly this year, and your animals are only changing color if they are supposed to (and is it really time to start thinking about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas?)!