2004 Carved Pumpkin Display

I wanted to do another display in 2005 but after many requests for a repeat of the previous year I gave in. I did not want to do another display as I felt it would be compared to the 2003 one which was such a huge success so as a gesture to the community I chose to do a theme and scale it down to 50 pumpkins and no refreshments and promised that 2005 would be a big show.

The Theme

To make it as different as it could be from last year I came up with doing a children’s film and storybook theme with heroes and villains.
This proved to be harder than I thought thinking of all the characters I could do and finding patterns, thankfully an American website forum I had joined came up trumps and many of its members sent me patterns to use. I got The Star Wars collection, Spongebob Squarepants and Johnny Depps Jack Sparrow to name a few

Setting the Scene

Once again I had the use of Barton House. We hung lantern lights around the garden and borrowed a bubble making machine from Jamie Vickery of Kobra Karaoke which my brother Simon and husband Steve had great fun with …just finding the right spot for it I was told! The weather stayed dry which was a huge bonus. So after coming through the entrance, through a wall of bubbles you entered a garden lit only by pumpkins and lantern lights it looked truly magical.

The Carvers

This year I had a few more volunteers for the job of scooping and carving, some were a bit nervous about what they had to do but after doing one they got into the swing of it and were happy to complete the amount they had to do with offers of help next year. Thanks to Penina and Sophie Boyles, Viv Pare, Debbie Bott, Harry Riley, Jo Sibbald and Claire Pitt

5.30 Halloween Night

The queue outside the gate was down the road so at 5.30 our Mrs Pumpkin aka Debbie Bott greeted everyone and showed them through the entrance. The bubbles were a hit and once again children and adults had dressed up. Jack Sparrow became very popular with the ladies and I had many offers of a donation for them to be able to take him home! All the children got a bag of sweets which had been donated by Tesco Barnstaple.

The Charity

We raised £426 in donations on the night for the Children’s Hospice which I am so pleased about as we did get a few comments about it not being as good as the previous year. It is sad that people felt they needed to compare it, if they had been charged an entrance fee then I could understand, but I suppose it is a bonus as next years can only be better !