Time’s running out, and so are the pumpkins. Pumpkin patches can be overwhelming for the little ones, but one block east of South Congress is a patch set up on an intimate scale that keeps everyone smiling while those pictures are taken. Every year there are more scarecrows in the backdrops for photographs, so someone must be an expert at making them. Wagons are available for ferrying the larger cucurbits to a vehicle, although we saw a wagon employed to carry a load of small pumpkins, not too heavy for the little boy pulling them along. Make sure you’re ready for the national holiday of Austin, which reaches its peak observation tomorrow evening. Look for the signs at Grace United Methodist Church, 205 East Monroe. It’s all for a good cause, and a trip to the pumpkin patch combines very well with one to the H-E-B on South Congress, where early voting is in progress.

Grace Methodist Church, just east of South Congress on Monroe, has the perfect pumpkin patch for the little ones. There are places to pose with pumpkins, bales of straw, and scarecrows, but nothing is too overwhelming for even the youngest. We saw little girls wearing orange tulle skirts with spangles, and little boys having their pictures taken with pumpkins small and light enough for them to hold in their arms. The smallest gourds have already sold out, but there are large warty ones in various colors to enhance anyone’s autumn decor beyond what pumpkins can do.

We missed the fair and bake sale yesterday, but there will be another bake sale this coming Saturday. Grace United Methodist Church is located at 205 East Monroe, just a block away from the South Congress bus line. Hours are 4 to 7 pm Monday through Friday, 10 am to 7 pm on Saturday, and noon to 7 pm on Sunday. Prices of the pumpkins vary by size. Proceeds go to support good causes.

Is this Halloween accursed in some way? Under some spell? If things were going well, this would be a current photograph instead of one from a prior year.

Last night, some creature gnawed giant pits in the pumpkins that were going to be carved after work today. In places, the hull has been taken right down to the flesh inside. There’s no “good” side left. Candidates with teeth include gray foxes (unlikely), opossums (unlikely), and raccoons (probable). All these critters and more are to be seen frequently. They have accounted for all our cantaloupes thus far. I’m not even ingenious enough to carve faces in these cucurbits that will incorporate the gouges. They’re just all the wrong places. We’ve always left pumpkins out on a porch until carving time comes and nothing like this has ever happened.

And, then, there’s the trouble with the cakes. At this season, now that it’s a bit cooler, I bake a lot of Breton chocolate pound cake. The old tube pan is so dented and mis-shapen that it’s a bit of a disgrace. So I invested in a new Bundt pan. The first time, all was well, But since that initial success, the pan has been reluctant to release the cake. Every single cake has come from the pan in two pieces, and this is not one of those cakes that can be glued together with frosting and hidden under more frosting. It goes to the table pretty naked, so that people are fooled into thinking that it’s something that’s harmless to their diets.

So I don’t know whether I have the time or inclination to invest in two more pumpkins, and there’s a cake in the oven now (mixed this morning, batter chilled all day) and I’m in suspense about how it will emerge. I’m pretty certain that the cake will taste delicious, no matter how it looks, and Halloween will be fun, whether or not there are jack-o-lanterns on the porch. I always think of this as the national holiday of Austin and am just one of the many thousands who look forward to it every year.