Personal Note: Autumn in the country-adjacent suburbs

[nebroadwe]

This morning was supposed to be pick-your-own-apples day followed by lunch, but Mother Nature does not appear to be a morning person. I gathered up nateprentice's kids bright and early (leaving him free to RP the day away!) and met some other friends and their offspring at the farm over the way. Unfortunately, it was raining -- not hard, but drippily enough to make slogging through the orchard unappealing (particularly with a toddler). So we let the older children feed the chickens and solve the maze and climb around on the playground (they didn't mind getting wet!) while the toddler took a nap; then we repaired to the nearest Friendly's for lunch. Everything is better with ice cream -- even Mother Nature cheered up, blew the drizzle away, and gave us a pleasantly sunny afternoon. So we headed back to the farm and picked apples, hoofing it through the orchard in search of Honeycrisps and Fujis and finding the latter but not the former. I ended up with rather more fruit than I'd intended to purchase, because nateprentice had strictly enjoined me not to permit his offspring to bring home any more apples (his cupboard overfloweth, apparently), but have you ever tried to part a child from his or her long-handled apple-picker? Futile. (Hey, kanja177, want some apples? Granny Smiths, mostly, with a sprinkling of Fujis, Staymans, Winesaps and some golden kind I never quite got the name of -- you can have your pick!)

So now I've got a pie in the oven and am contemplating home-made applesauce ... mmm ... autumn ...