A Sad Tale

I love this season and we are building traditions here that I have truly enjoyed. One tradition has been the pumpkin patch. We've gone every year since we came to Virginia. Yesterday, we decided, a bit last minute, that it was probably the only good time to go since next week will be busy with a birthday and anniversary. We loaded up in the car and headed over to the patch. This year though we did not see the sign for 'all you can carry' pumpkins for $20. Odd. So Bobby asked the man about it. He said the hurricane in September really did some damage to their pumpkin harvest and they just didn't have the stock this year to offer that. We were a bit bummed, but no big deal. We boarded the tractor and went for our ride. The view was the same, beautiful.
We drove past the same horses and chickens as every other year. However, when we got to the pumpkin patch there were no pumpkins growing from the ground. They had been placed there. Instead of vines and pumpkin blossoms there were just tall mounds of grass. There were plenty of pumpkins to choose from, but there were also a lot of pumpkins that were crushed and some were even moldy. Poor pumpkins. Luckily, all the kids managed to find a suitable one to take home.

Look at all that grass... no vines anywhere. And the broken pumpkins! So sad.While we were out there was a beautiful view of the sun's rays shooting through the clouds, I had to try and capture it even though I only had my phone.
We still had a great time and hopefully, next year's crop will look better.