The Talented Shelley Finley and the Great Pumpkin

[Abigail]

Sam just returned from Kansas and couldn't wait to show me the photo he had taken of Shelley's lovely artwork. I think I want to try this. I'm going to have to ask her how she held it in the vise without smashing it.

Cheers!
Abigail

 

[KCSteve]

I did something similar a few years back - before I got my engraving stuff.
Put up a little page on it here

I really thought about taking this year's pumpkin down to my bench - hey, I've got the woodcarving bits after all. But since the ever-indulgent wife took advantage of me being out of town for a day to buy the largest pumpkin we've ever had I stuck with my regular pumpking carving saws. Still took forever to shave it down thin enough for those so I figure it would have taken over an hour to get it thin enough for 'surface' carving.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Abigail

That's great............wouldn't surprise me if Shelly filled it with "Bloody Mary's"

Down here halloween is a very small thing. November the 5th (which was last night for us) is the big one when we celebrate Guy Fawkes night. All over the neighbourhood there are fireworks lighting up the sky. As usual a few kids get burnt or a finger blown off and a couple of houses generally get burt down.....but hey........that's just the price you pay for having fun

It's a British thing as Guy Fawkes, a few hundred years ago, in England, tried blowing up parliment and it's refereed to as the "Gun Powder Plot". They were very nearly successful. He and his co-conspirators were caught and died a rather grizzly death.

It often been said that "Guy Fawkes was the only man to enter parliment with honest intentions!!!!"

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Steve223]

LMAO and its prolly the truth Andrew if your polaticans are anything like ours!!

 

[PS_Bond]

It's a British thing as Guy Fawkes, a few hundred years ago, in England, tried blowing up parliment and it's refereed to as the "Gun Powder Plot". They were very nearly successful. He and his co-conspirators were caught and died a rather grizzly death.

I went to the same school as him...

The school rules included not being allowed to burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes as it was disrespectful to an old boy. So we burned effigies of the headmaster instead.

 

[Abigail]

Next year we should have a pumpkin carving contest!
Remind me next October!
Cheers,
Abigail

 

[KCSteve]

Hey Andrew,

A question for you:

Are the Guy Fawkes Day celebrations because he failed to blow up Parliment, or because he tried?

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Well Steve.

That's a very interesting question. I've never really figured out why we celebrate a failed plot to murder people by a man that was killed in a most brutal fashion. And to show our appreciation of this we burn his effigy every year, maim some of our kids by handing them explosives to play with, cause havoc amongst the pet population and raze several houses...............like I said.........it's an English thing

Cheers
Andrew

By the way Abigail............I think a pumpkin carving contest is a great idea. Can we fill it full of fireworks and blow it up afterwards...............pleeeeeaaaaase!!!!!

 

[gtsport]

Guy Fawkes day was celebrated on this side of the pond, too. That is until 1776 or there abouts...

Joe Paonessa

(President of the Elisha Raymond chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution)

 

[Unkl Ian]

Any excuse for a party.



Seems reasonable.

 

[vilts]

Rembember, remember the fifth of November.
The gunpowder treason and plot.
There is no reason the gunpowder treason
Ever should be forgot.

Me, being away culturally from England and its customs, heard about Guy Fawkes from movie "V for Vendetta" just few years ago. Cool movie, by the way. But I agree with Unkl Ian, that any excuse for party is reasonable. Be it failed gunpowder treason, victory from 14th century (this is when we make big fires to celebrate that our ancestors actually did succeed in burning down our oppressor manors ).

 

[KCSteve]

Actually, we do (sort of) still celebrate it here in the U.S.A. - George Washington arranged for Election Day to be close to Guy Fawkes day. Partly it was as a token of appreciation to the French Catholics helping us out, partly it was to serve as a reminder to those elected not to push the people too far.

 

[david bain]

does it take an excuse to party

 

[monk]

doesn't anybody just get drunk any more for the heck of it ? monk, the drunk !

 

[Sam]

doesn't anybody just get drunk any more for the heck of it ? monk, the drunk !

Drunkenness stifles creativity.

 

[KCSteve]

Drunkenness stifles creativity.

Well now, doesn't that depend on how you get drunk?