October 12

Throughout town, people are continuing to decorate for the fall season; there are corn stalks and gourds and pumpkins on doorsteps.

My guess is that the majority came from the farm here, with this past August and September nearly ideal for growing such crop. Each day we see the grey truck go back and forth to Echo farm multiple times, whether it be to pick up pumpkins or corn, both of which grow in the fields there.

It is unusual this time of year – still picking corn this late in the season, when normally the killing frost would have ended things well enough. It has been strangely warm, making corn on the cob out of place for October. We haven’t eaten any since September anyway, as there is a season for everything.

Just now, the driveway in front of the store has jumbles of pumpkins placed on wooden pallets, the piles arranged broadly by size. There are white pumpkins mixed within the mostly orange regulars, and these appear ghostly at night when carved and lit by candle from within.