OK, so this is really late notice (10 days late, yeesh), but I would be remiss if I didn't point out, for those of you who missed it, that the gardens of Van Cortlandt Manor are given huge play in an article in the Escapes section of the July 13 New York Times.

Titled "The Hudson Valley's Fields of Joy," the excellent article by Judy Dobrzynski includes profiles and pretty pictures of five worthy gardens to visit in the Hudson Valley.

Van Cortlandt gets a great spread -- and Judy even points out that pumpkins are grown here! (No mention of Blaze, though. Darn. Next time.)

The Times also profiled Montgomery Place, Historic Hudson Valley's Dutchess County paradise.

In the print version, the article appears on the front cover of Escapes with color photographs of both Van Cortlandt and Montgomery Place. When it jumps to the section's back page, it includes a HUGE color image of  the view of the Hudson from Montgomery Place. The article also profiles the grand gardens at Stonecrop, Bellefield, and Lasdon Park and Arboretum.

The online version includes a slideshow of images that is well worth checking out.

Take 3,000 hand-carved pumpkins, mix them with "Werewolves of London" being covered by The Grateful Dead, spin the images this way and that, and you have the beginnings of a clever YouTube video, as Tim Duquette shows us.

No dancing bears but there are dancing skeletons.

Personally, I prefer Warren Zevon's classic, but the Dead do have a certain charm. Pumpkins, of course, are always charming. Check it out and let me know what ya think.

Maybe the hardest thing about planting pumpkins is not succumbing to the urge to toast, salt, and munch ALL the seeds before you get them in the ground.

The folks at Wallkill View Farm, however, where Historic Hudson Valley gets pound after pound of pumpkin for The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, seem to have no problem planting these precious pumpkin seeds. (Perhaps they eat Corn Nuts instead?)

Here at the Blaze Blog, we’re continuing to patiently watch the little sprouts…well…sprout. Thousands of pounds of pumpkin they will soon be.

Check out this picture, taken in mid-June, of the little guy shown in the Blaze Blog’s first entry. Somehow, somewhere, a pumpkin is in there just waiting to burst out…Vibrant orange, olé!

A typical Jack O’Lantern might not seem like that big of a deal for someone to create, especially if they are already blessed with an artistic eye. But some of the more radical, intricate designs on display at The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze just defy belief. Can an abstract “Celtic knot” actually be hand-carved? Or are these things stamped out at a factory?

Trying to get to the bottom of this, I challenged Michael Natiello, the creative designer behind Blaze and all-around pumpkin carving guru, to shed at least a little spidery candlelight on the process.

Turns out it all starts with a hand-drawn pattern, like the example shown here. In order to get such a meticulous, eye-popping carved pumpkin, it pays to be patient and spend some time drawing the design, first on paper (as shown in the other image here), and then eventually transferring it or drawing it on the pumpkin.

Once that part’s complete, you bust out an array of tools that would make a medieval surgeon grin ear-to-ear to start the actual carving. More on that in future entries. Michael will hopefully chime in on what, besides a steady hand, the fledgling abstract carver needs to create pleasing pumpkinscapes.

For now, these two pictures perfectly demonstrate the argument for “drawing first, then carving,” and, I’m convinced, totally disprove the stamped-out-at-a-factory notion. Score one for Natiello…

Nothing gets us more excited about the coming 2007 Blaze than watching footage from last year's event. Thanks to YouTube, viewers from across the globe can relive (or live) the experience. Here's one excellent example we uncovered. Long live pumpkins!

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