What’s the highest number of carved pumpkins you have seen at one time? For me, that number was maybe 10 or 20. This year our friends invited us to a pumpkin event with over 3000 of them!

Apparently every October Naumkeag and Long Hill put together a display for the public to enjoy for a month. How do they keep the pumpkins from rotting? I wondered. And got my answer. While there are some real pumpkins, the trustees use “funkins” for most of the display. I found the sustainability page on their website quite interesting.

The plan was to meet our friends directly after work, and during the day I got a text stating that it was an event where people were encouraged to dress up. That memo came a bit late for us so Chris and I went dressed as ourselves. But our friends dressed up. Love that!

We met in an assigned parking lot then were bussed to the house with the pumpkins. The sun was just starting to dip down over the mountains, and the weather was perfection. A volcano display met us right off. It made me think of my grandaughter who loves volcanoes.

There was not a better time to go, IMHO. The company was fun, the sunset exquisite, and the carvings — fun. I think I found a pumpkin that reminded me of every person I love. We saw everything from Pokemon to Mario to Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings among abstracts and other haunted displays.

I particularly loved when Velda let us take her pic in her Monster’s costume as she posed with another Monster’s character. And when Landor mimicked McGonagall’s face:

And I always love pics of my handsome husband:

I’m just gonna put most of the pics here as a slideshow for you to enjoy (or not) at your own pace).

I think some of the most fun pics of the night were the stairway snake and when Chris was pretending to be part of the masked wall:

And there was one final, freaky photo Landor took and shared. Chris and I were trying to mimic the serious person in the portrait over us. But look! There is a legless ghost right next to me. Ack!!!!

* Photo credits go to Velda, Landor and myself — we had a shared album, and the images are used with their permission.