This must be pumpkin festival weekend. Halloween is this week and there are a number of big pumpkin farms in Niagara. A few years ago I was doing on the escarpment and came upon a traffic jam and gridlock. It was Howell's Family Pumpkin Farm. This is a farm amusement park, with sand boxes, bunnies, animals, tractor tire play area, hay play area, straw ump barn, haystack jumping pillow, a tricycle track, the giant maze, and so on. These are all activities for little ones. Their website is ahowlinggoodtime.com
At Warner Ranch and Pumpkin Farm in Welland, there is something every season - for winter activities there are horse drawn sleigh rides of various sizes of sleigh. For autumn, their pumpkin patch is extensive, and they distinguish themselves from Howell's with free admission to the park. Various activities have prices - pony rides $4.00, petting zoo and corn maze, $2.00 and so on.
They have Rainbow the Unicorn for birthday parties. Here's what they say: "Rainbow does not live here at the farm, being a Unicorn he resides in the enchanted forest and can be reached at 289-673-1729.
And close to us is Puddicombe Farms, right on Highway 8 with a train around the orchards and fruit wine production. The train ride is a "scenic 30 minute ride around our 100 acre estate".
Here are two of the models from the Minneapolis Show this year.
Relief from the muggy conditions...that was our weather headline this week. It is only 18 degrees outside compared to earlier in the week when it felt like 40 degrees. The greenhouse temperature was the same as outside yesterday.
I notice that we have a 'love it' and 'hate it' relationship with summer heat. People either love it or hate it. It is my sense that we don't have this contrast with winter. My theory for winter is that there is a graduated scale of 'hate it'.
August itself is not hated, though. The 2005 Gallop poll and a current ranking site identify October as the favourite month, with December the second most popular. June is third.
Where is August? It is eighth and ahead of March, April, January and February. I did find two August jokes:
Knock, knock?… Who is there?… August… August Who?… A gust of wind over 74 MPH could be the start of a hurricane!
Knock, knock?… Who is there?… August… August Who?… A gust of wind knocked me over!
Oh well, they were pretty meagre jokes. However, we are heading into some favourite months and weather, so I expect better jokes ahead.
Remember our boat from yesterday? I found a more complicated boat-themed tree house in Toronto - the article is HERE. It has a price tag of $30,000. I don't think Grimsby's has a price tag like that. It likely isn't in violation of any building and zoning bylaws either.
We're off to the Narrow Gauge Convention next week. It is in Minneapolis - the home of Mall of America. Here are a few pictures from last year at the same time.
