Friday | At the Apple Orchard; Hurricane Helene

Friends, this has been the week of weather I’ve been hoping for in New Hampshire. Cloudy, cool, and a lot of rain over the last few days. However, my excitement about the weather has been moderated given the course of Hurricane Helene. Several of my dear blogging friends are in its path and I am on pins and needles, waiting to hear how they are. I know many of us are!

Here in New Hampshire, a big rainstorm was forecasted to start late Wednesday morning and last through Thursday evening. We knew we wanted to get to the apple orchard this week and early Wednesday seemed like our last opportunity. So we decided to go on a school field trip instead of gathering around the table for more formal learning. I’m always nervous about decisions like that (especially last minute ones) but it was a very good choice.

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You can see in the pictures how overcast the sky was and clearly, we basically had the orchard to ourselves. We picked two pecks of macouns, honey crisp, and crimson crisp apples. The orchard is deceptively steep and large and we had fun racing up the trails to the very top (about a 15 minute walk uphill), which had the most beautiful section of honey crisp apples you can imagine.

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And as wonderful as the fruit orchard is (they also have raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and grapes) they also have a cut-your-own flower garden that is amazing. They have three massive rows of zinnias and one with a wide variety of dahlias. It made my heart go pitter-patter! This garden is what I want at my house. As a perspective, here’s my little garden of zinnias, ageratums, and cosmos (with leggy sunflowers in the back):

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I am absolutely not complaining about this little patch because it has kept Bronwyn and me full of bouquets this summer. But you know. I’m already dreaming up about how to expand it and where to plant my dahlias next year!

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And once we got home from the orchard it was time to start baking. I roasted a pumpkin and froze its puree and Matthew made this beautiful pie yesterday. I’m hoping to make pumpkin snickerdoodles this weekend with some of the puree and save the rest for pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.

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I hope you’re able to enjoy some fall weather this weekend. Mine will be the same as always: work at the library, cooking & cleaning, and maybe some reading. I’d also really like to do some knitting given the shift in the weather, but that might be too far out of reach right now. I hope your weekend is full of exactly what you need.

And I hope everyone in the path of Hurricane Helene is safe. Take good care.