I went on a little October road trip to pick pumpkins from a beautiful patch and we ended up driving north of the city to explore and see the fall leaves. I thought I’d share some photos from the day as we found a lovely cemetery with Victorian headstones and some other seasonally-appropriate road trip things. 🙂

Pumpkin patches are one of my favorite things! I love seeing the sleepy fat gourds out in the fields this time of year, lounging in the dark soil. This patch is the same place we shot our “Pumpkin Patch” photoshoot a few years ago, it’s become a tradition of mine to go back there every fall to pick a really special pumpkin. Loved the pale grey and white pumpkins, they look like dead flesh. I did indeed buy a buttery yellow pumpkin (and picked one great big orange one out in the field).

After the patch we headed north into the countryside to see if the leaves had changed more north of Toronto. We crossed a bridge over a little lake that was the most perfect dark blue, all around it were forests dappled with oranges and gold. There was a faint rainbow spilling down between the clouds into the woods in the distance.

Just as the sun was setting we came across a beautiful little cemetery. Some of the graves dated back to the 1880s and there were some incredible Victorian tombstones there. The entire cemetery was circled by autumn tress and it smelled of wet earth and crushed pine needles. The weird thing was there was a huge flock (a murder!) of crows at the far end (you can sort of see them in the sky in the last photo). I have never seen so many crows at once! They took off suddenly in a black cloud and hurried off over the forest. Magical!

There was a tombstone with my last name on it! I also found several really lovely examples of Victorian tombstone symbols. The clasped hands signify a farewell to the earthly world and the welcoming hand of “God” in the afterlife.

It was just the most beautiful end to our day, and we drove back to the city in the dark, watching the countryside drain out and the lights of Toronto start to approach.

-Taeden