GONNA MAKE YOU HUNGRY FOR A NECTARINE

• 
  October's birth flowers are the cosmos and marigold.  Cosmos are colorful flowers that bloom in the summer and continue into early autumn.  Marigolds are the ultimate deer-repellent plant.  
• Jack-o'-lanterns were inspired by the Irish folk tale of Stingy Jack, who was doomed to roam the earth at night after making a deal with the devil.  To guide his way, he lit a piece of coal in a carved-out turnip.
• One of the pleasures of October is putting on one's favorite hoodie.  My closet has several hoodies, cuz it's probably my favorite attire.  It's sweatshirt weather!
• 
  October's birth fruit is the nectarine.  The word nectarine means sweet as nectar.  Like peaches, nectarines were first cultivated in China and were also cultivated in ancient Persia, Greece and Rome.  Trade routes took the nectarine through Greece, where residents thought nectarine juice was so tantalizing they called it the drink of the gods.  Nectarines are not a hybrid of anything.  They're simply smooth-skinned and have been around as long as fuzzy peaches.  Nectarines are identical to peaches with the exception of one gene, and that difference makes peaches fuzzy and nectarines smooth.