over the weekend: apple picking!

I had a great weekend. Ever since K and I moved (back) to Vermont in 2008, we have been vigilant about sticking to a few fall traditions: apple picking and pumpkin carving. There is just something about autumn that begs us to take advantage--maybe it's because autumn is the last hurrah before we hibernate all winter, maybe it's some biological need to celebrate the harvest season, maybe it's because I was born in October and apple cider just runs in my blood ;) Whatever the reason, it's great fun (here we are in 2009 and 2010). After a scrumptious brunch at Libby's Diner in Colchester (yummmmmmm vegetarian benedict), we headed over to Shelburne Orchards, where we picked a bushel (40 lbs!) of McIntosh apples in under an hour (there were so many!). It was a gloriously sunny 75 degrees, and we had a wonderful time wandering through the rows, comparing best picks, and marveling at the beautiful scenery. We wrapped up the afternoon with hot cider on the hillside, and brought our apples home for lunches and pies and the like :)

That night I headed over to my parents' house, where they were having a big going-away gala for a neighborhood friend. It was a wild night, complete with a bonfire, mad dancing, fabulous people and lots and lots of wine. (Woodbury is where it's at.) No photographic evidence, but it's probably better that way. The next morning I got up feeling a little bit worse for wear, played a round of Bananagrams with my mom to give my muddled brain a bit of a workout, and went for a leisurely stroll in the forest before driving home on the back roads with the windows down and Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band playing bluesy music into the open air.

Good times :)