Last weekend, I actually gave myself a day off.

That might sound as groundbreaking as “florals for spring” for most people, but for me, it was a pretty rare occasion.

I’m currently juggling quite a lot - between my part time job at a coffee shop, University, and running my own business on the side, it’s not very often I have time to truly switch off and do something else.

However, on Saturday morning, we set off bright and early to Bates Farm for their annual pumpkin picking, and it was the most wholesome morning I’ve had in a long time.

I genuinely didn’t expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did. It was the BEST.

Believe it or not, I’ve managed to get to 29 years old having never been pumpkin picking or to a pumpkin patch and, if I’m being honest, it’s never really appealed to me until the last year or two.

As a true Christmas girl at heart, Halloween has never been a festival or holiday I’ve leaned into, despite being also completely in love with all things Autumn.

If I really think about it, I used to enjoy Halloween when I was little, but I think I fell out of love with it when - as someone who doesn’t drink and doesn’t particularly enjoy a night out - all my friends started going out or to alcohol fuelled fancy dress parties when college and University hit 13 years ago.

But then last year, October marked massive change for me. I moved out of the apartment I loved with my best friend and “temporarily” in with my boyfriend. (I have "“temporarily” in bunny quotes there because it’s a year later and I’ve accidentally ended up still living with him…)

I was SUPER grateful to my boyfriend for letting me stay with him at the time, otherwise I’m not quite sure where I would’ve ended up. However, there was two of us living in a studio flat that was definitely big enough just for him, but definitely not big enough for both of us… and all of my clothes.

So, it meant a huge, constant, anxiety-inducing feeling of limbo that was hanging over me, as, at this point, we hadn’t discussed making the living arrangement a permanent thing, and so I was spending every minute I had looking for a new apartment to rent or running between my boyfriend’s flat at the storage space I was renting for the rest of my stuff.

Anyone who knows me will know I’m a planner. I don’t deal well with change, uncertainty or “going with the flow” as my best friend will tell you. And so not having a permanent place to live or knowing where I was going to be a few weeks later, wasn’t my ideal situation.

So, I looked for something that I could lean into and feel a bit of comfort in.

Cue, all the fairy lights.

My boyfriend didn’t really know what had hit him when he came home from work one day and I’d covered his apartment in fairy lights, pumpkin decorations and fake autumn twigs. However, it brought me such joy.

I get great happiness from decorating for Christmas, and so I figured making the place all cosy for Autumn and Halloween would bring about a similar feeling of coziness for me, and it definitely did.

My best friend had introduced me to Hocus Pocus the year before while the cinemas were still showing old re-runs of films due to the pandemic, and so I made the executive decision that me and my boyfriend were going to have a Hocus Pocus 2 viewing party. (Not sure if it was for the film or the excuse to buy all the snacks, but…)

This is a very long way round of telling you why I’m now a full Halloween girly. The comforting and calming feeling it brought me last year, whilst everything else felt like it was up in the air and a bit chaotic, was something I was really grateful for.

And that is why, during my 30th year, I was determined to FINALLY go pumpkin picking and see what all the fuss was about.

We chose Bates Farm as it was relatively local to us and had such good reviews, and it was the perfect place. We were the first ones on the patch at 9.30am and it was so refreshing being able to walk around a field in the fresh air.

The farm do offer free farm tours too, but we decided to head straight to the patch while it was beautifully quiet (and not raining!). We started hunting for the smaller pumpkins, as we wanted to use them as decorations before we carve them and use them, and… well, you can see how happy I am with our selections!

Once you’ve picked your pumpkins, you can head to the Barn Shop to buy some pre-picked ones or pay for the ones you have, and then there was a The Little Latte van in the adjacent barn where we got some delicious hot chocolate and coffee.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy the day as much as I did, but it was just so incredibly wholesome and gave me my first chance in a long time to mentally switch off and recharge my batteries.

Would highly recommend. 🧡🧡