A couple of weeks ago we had a lovely dinner and evening with friends on Bay Lake Road. These friends had recently been gifted with five large gourds, really large gourds, of the Blue Squash variety. These gourds were huddled together by their front door, looking something like those pods from the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.  I could not pass them by without a remark of astonishment. Perhaps not surprisingly, our hosts kindly offered to send one home with us.

The gift gourd amazed us with its girth. For the trip home, we placed it gently on the backseat of the car, just refraining from strapping it in with a seat belt. Passing through town we were stopped at a main intersection by a contingent of the hard-working R.I.D.E. police. While one officer asked us the usual questions concerning the evening’s libations, the other circled our car, shining his flashlight through the windows. On completing the full circle, the second officer popped his head in on the driver’s side and remarked in a serious tone, “Big gourds are allowed.”

Ha. And so this moment of notoriety made our Gourd all the more loveable to me. I had to get his portrait posed on our sideboard, as you can see in the photo above. I doubt that this particular Blue Squash Gourd is going to be made into soup. He is too entertaining visually to be offered up to such a mundane purpose.

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On the topic of big edible things, look at this.

This is a picture that appeared in an old book of my mother’s: “Those Years From Rail to Oil”. This thick tome was published in 1981 by people from my mother’s home town to set down the history of their part of Alberta.

Now my credibility is stretched. I find it difficult to believe pumpkins ever got that big. What do you think? This book was printed long before everyone was into fancy Photoshop manipulation. And it seems unlikely that the Hardisty Senior Citizens group who pulled the whole book together would put in a fake photograph. Still and all, look at those babies on the back of that wagon! Can you believe that?

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Staying with the Edible theme, my own art for this week is a very modest entry. Nice little green limes studded with cloves and topped with bay leaves. Cheers to you all. Enjoy your holiday festivities this week.