Inspiration

It was David’s birthday on the 30th and so we took the opportunity for a ‘family meal’ with his brother, Stuart, and his fiancée, Amy. We walked across to a local hotel – Plas Ifan, Northop Hall – and had a fabulous meal and whilst there Amy was compelled to buy one of their home-grown pumpkins and have a go at carving it – they had done some beauties!

On the way home, David managed to catch the moon and hold it for a moment, just the right sort of gift for him! Our food was very good, we all chose something totally different – Steak & Guiness Pie; Pork Steak; Peppered Chicken; Chicken Curry and a Mushroom Nut Roast.

David's lunar moment

Great carving

The meal

Preparation

I went online to find details of how to carve a pumpkin – neither Amy nor I had done one before – and all instructions said to start simply, usually with one of those gap-toothed faces you see everywhere.

I told Amy this and so she chose her extremely complicated company logo – Amy pole dancing – as the simple image! She attached it to the pumpkin with a pin and used another to pierce the skin around the design outline.

The Beginning

Simple!!!!

Outlining

Nearly there

1st stage done

Hollowing

For some reason, Amy thought I’d be a good person to cut the circular lid! As you can see – I can’t actually cut a decent circle. Still, I did manage to angle the knife so that the lid would have some flesh to sit on and not fall back through. We thought about using the flesh for something edible but ended up not actually removing too much of the meat of it, just the seeds and fibres. It was soooooo hard to dig out with a spoon so we just thinned it a little around the area we were working on and left the rest intact. (do you like the way I say ‘we’, as if I actually did anything towards it!?)

Circular!

the Lava Pit

Yuck!

Work in Progress

The following photos show Amy attacking the pumpkin with great gusto – it really doesn’t look much and I’m convinced it’s going to be a failure. At the very least, she’s going to slip with that knife at the last minute and make a mess of it!

See - I was there!

Amy Pumpkin Head

Result!

Well, we all had to take our doubts back! Every one of us is so impressed with the finished product. Can you see all those fine details in the fan and the hair? For a beginner, this is outstanding – well done Amy!