"There you go, Findlay. It should hold for another twenty years." Beau threw his hammer into his tool bag and looked where Findlay and Fin stood on the verandah.

Findlay grabbed the stair rail and shook. "Seems strong enough. What about the treads? You've made sure none are loose."

Beau cocked his eyebrow as Fin guffawed and shifted her baby daughter from one hip to the other. "Dad. Beau's the best builder in town."

"What the hell?" Findlay ignored her and looked toward the vegetable patch. "What has that little bugger gone and done now?"

Beau turned to see his son struggling across the yard with a big pumpkin in his arms. "Cody...! That better not be your grandfather's prize pumpkin!"

"It is, Dad!" Finnegan ran past his twin brother and yelled, "I told him not to."

Cody set the pumpkin at his father's feet with a worried look. "He's lying, Dad. It wasn't me. He cut it. I'm bringing it to show Gramps what he did."

"No, I didn't. He's lying."

Beau shook his head and gave them a quizzical look. He crouched in front of his sons and searched their faces. It wasn't Cody carrying the pumpkin but Finnegan, even close it was hard to tell them apart so he never had hope from a distance.

"Cody. Did you cut the pumpkin?"

"Uh, uh. I didn't," he said with a tweak of his lips. "It was Finny."

"It wasn't, Dad. I promise." Stress flooded Finnegan's face. "I just bought it over to show Gramps."

"It's okay, mate." Beau pulled Finnegan in for a hug and peered at Cody. "What am I going to do with you? You're just like your uncle. He always pretended to be me and got me into so much trouble."

"It's funny, Dad." Cody stepped in and flung his arm over Finnegan's shoulders. He said, "Finny's telling the truth. It was me this time but he plays tricks too."

Finnegan grinned, threw his arm over Cody's shoulders and smirked as he said, "I do, Dad. You thought I was Cody."

Beau looked from one to the other, screwed up his face and scratched behind his ear. He shook his head, stood and eyed Fin. "I want a refund. Identical twin boys are more trouble than I realised." He chuckled. "Is it too late to send them back and replace them with girls?"

"Sorry, Beau." Fin laughed and shook her head. "It was your doing. Remember that documentary saying the sex of a child is determined by..."

Beau burst into laughter. She still quoted things she learnt from the TV.

"What the hell are you laughing about?" Findlay scowled and pointed at the ground. "That's my prize pumpkin. I was gonna enter it into the show."

Beau shrugged and held out his palms as he said, "There's always next year, Gramps."

Poor Findlay. I wonder if he enjoys being a grandfather.

The photo is of a Kent Pumpkin.  It stays green like this but can fade on the outside. The inside is bright orange and tasty.  Australian's use pumpkin as one of their main vegetables.  So if you have meat and three veg for dinner, pumpkin will most likely be one of those vegetables.  We make soup and scones with pumpkin as well.

I've discovered that American's don't eat pumpkin the way we do and that they call them squash.  I visited there for 2 months last year and was there in the fall.  I couldn't believe all the varieties that America has and they don't eat them but use them as Fall decorations.

Here's a pic of me in an American pumpkin patch. Hahaha

How do you eat pumpkin?

Thank you once again for all your support. Reading your comments and seeing your votes is a dream come true.  xoxo

Author note follows.

Copyright © 2025 by Donna Fieldhouse. All rights reserved.