Dear friends, long time no write! It’s lovely to be back. Today I want to talk about a wonderful activity I participated in with my wife (WIFE! Yes, I got married!) for the festive season.
With festivities meaning Halloween is just around the corner, my wife, Em, and I decided to go to the pumpkin patch! We have been two years in a row before now and enjoyed it very much.
As we’ve moved, this means we’ve had to find a new turf (with aggressively no TERFs)! With a quick google search we found ‘Hollam Nurseries’ running a PYO pumpkin patch in Fareham, which turned out to be round the corner from us!
Luckily for us, Hollam Nurseries was a fully accessible patch, yay! With pumpkins spread out far enough from the next row and close disabled spaces, this was perfect for us. I am a wheelchair user (using a power chair; a Quickie Q50r) and Em uses a rollator so we really needed disabled access.
When we got there we were greeted by the cutest entrance sign – a prop for social media promotional purposes of course (it had their social handles on it) but also just it just gave such homely autumn vibes!
We followed into the main field where the ground started to get softer. For the most part it was fine but when we got to the actual pumpkins, that’s when we struggled. Suddenly, I was beeched. It looked like I’d gone into the muddiest part so we tried to move me to another lane where my chair could smoothly glide atop the mud but even on the harder looking mud, my wheels sank again and there was mud everywhere. Em could also not get her walker through the mud. We weren’t thinking; every other year I’ve managed (at the other place) to bring my wheelchair pumpkin picking but this year, the past few nights it’s been particularly rainy – of course it would be exceptionally muddy. So ‘accessible’ in claims or not, the weather had other plans.
Luckily, I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user and today was a good pain day so I was able to walk! We decided to only go to the nearest pumpkins (because I cannot walk any further – even though it was a good day, I still cannot stand for long or walk very far) and luckily we chose a good spot. There were some damn good pumpkins on that turf, and we took them home for our doorstep!
It was four for £10 which is reasonable and we’re going to decorate them on October 30th (last minute, I know, but we have other things to do until then!). Like last year, we’re not going to carve them. I can’t physically do it due to the pain and strength issues caused by my disabilities and Em struggles too, so we decided to draw our designs on with permanent marker! Especially as we have a front porch light, you can see them when you go past the house still, and it’s significantly less spoons than carving them out.
We’re very excited for Halloween this year as we can finally take part in trick or treating! Living in a flat before we couldn’t but in our lovely bungalow we can’t wait to give out sweets – we have decor all ready and plans for Halloween evening already. I’m certainly excited as it’s the first of my birthday celebrations as we are away on honeymoon for the actual day! No, i’m excited about the ghost deely boppers we got in ASDA!
So, pumpkin picking might not have been the most accessible activity we could’ve picked this weekend but it was a cute date all the same and I’m grateful I felt able to do it (despite paying for it now – thanks PEM).
I love the autumn and I am going to return to drinking my PSL in bed; I hope you all feel cosy as you’re reading this – if not, this is your sign to get cosy (or at least plan a cosy evening in tonight 😉)
Love always,
Laur xxx
@holaurgraphic 
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