Last weekend I visited not one but two pumpkin patches as well as the annual Mandarin Craft Festival in Jacksonville, Florida. This was my first time visiting the festival, and I went with my friend to walk the more than 100 stalls selling handmade items.

From handmade jewelry to Christmas ornaments to home décor to baked goods, this festival had it all, and I entered not thinking I’d buy anything, but, of course, I was wrong. I walked out with a bag of handmade sweets and chocolates and a fabric ornament of a fat orange cat (to represent my own fat orange cat at home).

We spent about two hours at this festival before heading over to the neighboring pumpkin patch to walk the aisles of pumpkins and alien-shaped gourds. My best friend has been to this pumpkin patch since she was a child, so we took photos similar to her childhood ones to send to her family.

Later that day my sister and I ventured to our own local pumpkin patch to pick out a few pumpkins for our own place. We walked away with one hefty pumpkin and two medium-sized ones. I intend to paint one of the medium pumpkins for a more personalized appearance and am still between a few ideas on what to paint.

 

While the Florida weather has yet to truly turn to fall weather, this weekend was the first inkling of autumn with a nice breeze and a noticeable difference in temperature in the shade, which is one of the first indicators of the end of summer in Florida.

— Aoife O’Riordan, associate editor