perks of autumn

It's that time of year again. And once again, the weather was on our side. It was a little cold up in the mountains, and it was quite windy, but it was FALL, and it was gorgeous. (I took this picture while standing inside the hay maze and holding the camera up over my head to snap it. Gotta love auto-focus.) The trees were full of golds and deep oranges and reds and yellow-orange pumpkins were everywhere along the roads. The browns of straw and hay were stark agains the blue sky as we drove down little roads with the quilt of colors draped over us. We drove through tiny towns full of antique shops and diners. We listened to bluegrass and listened to the shouts of the kids as they pounced on each other in the hay mountain and shrieked through the hay maze. We only lost a couple of children, and they were wet from the stream only up to their knees, so it was a good day.

The kids throwing rocks into the stream, after attempting to build a dam across the entire span of it. Didn't work.

We filled up on brunswick stew, warm cornbread smothered with fresh apple butter, applesauce, hot dogs, barbeque, peanut brittle, and caramel apples. Ah, appalachia. Survey question: do you eat CAR-mel or car-a-MEL?


Kids on the hay ride. They took the shocks out this year. Don't know how one of us didn't end up flying out into the orchards. I fear I'm getting too old for hayrides. How sad is that? But I'll keep going as long as the kiddos want to. I'm bringing a pillow next time though.


And look what I came home with!!
It was such a nice day I'm not even overwhelmed by the half-bushel of apples sitting in my front room. Well, not really. Not much.