Unexpected

P decided that pumpkin soup would be a suitable lunch in this October weather, prompting me to cut up one of last autumn's two remaining pumpkins. I'm astonished they have lasted so long without any signs of internal damage, and was a little uncertain what I would find when I cut the larger of the two in half. I did not expect to find green shoots in the hollow centre, growing from two of the pumpkin's many seeds and nestling comfortably among the orange and white tangle of filaments. I wonder how long they would have continued growing, had I left them undisturbed, and what would have happened to the pumpkin. They have now been condemned to the compost bin, and the soup was good, tasty and warming.

OneDrive reminded me that exactly twenty years ago P took a deep breath and pushed J, aged twelve, up a steep slope onto a slippery rock in Central Park so that she could pose with the statue of Balto the sled dog, hero of what was then one of her favourite animated films - a lovely memory which filled me with nostalgia.