Punkin Pickin

We went to the pumpkin patch today (Chiles Peach Orchard) and picked our Halloween pumpkins. The patch here in C'ville was not nearly as plentiful as the one in Williamsburg (College Run Farms), where they had something like 18 varieties of pumpkins and gourds! We actually had to hunt for our pumpkins today because the patch was so small and there were so few still on the vine. (As Ben said, to quote Linus in Charlie Brown & the Great Pumpkin, "This patch was not nearly as sincere as the other ones we've been to.") Anyway, at last, we found 2 still on the vine without too much nastiness on them (such as slugs, which I found when picking up one...). Afterward, we enjoyed some yummy apple cider doughnuts at the little orchard store and some very good, fresh apple cider.

Some pretty flowers near the orchard store:

Getting to the patch was just as enjoyable as being there. The countryside just a few miles outside of C'ville is absolutely gorgeous, especially in fall, and the warm October sun today made it really awesome. Rolling green hills, white picket fences, bales of hay dotting the landscape, reds and yellows spewing from the tree-filled mountains in the background, and dying grape vines (at vineyards) here and there. Everything romanticized about the countryside is pretty much right here in one place. It's quite serene--one of those moments when all seems right with the world!

Apple Country

Western Virginia is apple country, and we're right in the heart of it here in Charlottesville. Today we went apple picking for about the third time this season--we went two other times in August and September. Different apples are ready at different times from August to November. Today, Carter Mountain Orchard had several new pick-your-own kinds: Fuji, Stayman, Jonagold, and Granny Smith. (Previously we had picked other kinds.) We picked a few Fujis, a few Staymans, and a lot of Granny Smiths. We also picked up three other kinds that they were selling (from bins): Pippin (Thomas Jefferson's favorite kind), Mutsu (aka Crispin), and Winesap. It's fun to try each kind and notice the differences in flavor and texture! We're looking forward to some good apple dishes in the coming weeks. Here are a few pictures:

They had some apple pickers for folks to use--to reach apples at the tops of the trees (which is where many of the good ones are). I was not as skilled as Ben at this, but I tried :)

Victory:

For family members who will get this joke, we called this the "up, up, up, up, up, then down, down, down, down, down" method :) (a-la-Nana!)

Granny Smith on the tree:

Granny Smiths are my favorites!

There were TONS of apples all over the ground, especially in the Fuji apple tree area. We're not sure why--seemed rather wasteful. Perhaps either there was a storm that knocked a bunch down (we did have lots of rain this past week), or some apple-pickers were not very skilled with their apple-picking implements:

Another Granny Smith:

Pretty morning glory winding up one of the apple trees:

We're looking forward to picking another batch of apples later this fall. Some of the best kinds are yet to come!

High Jumper

Perry is so good at jumping high to catch things that we throw to her. I think we have a future Kitty Olympian :)

Perry & Water

Unlike oil and water, and unlike MOST cats and water, Perry and water apparently go quite well together. After several days of spilling her water - sometimes multiple times per day - on the kitchen floor, today we decided to take full advantage of the current fascination with water and give her a bath, the first real one in her life. (She has had some partial baths/wipe-downs before but not a full immersion.)

We started slow: we put one of her small water bowls inside a large platter, which she surely could not tip over. She did tip over the small bowl inside it, though, and began playing with the water in the platter. Next, we moved to putting out a little Tupperware tub of water. She played in that, got in and out very quickly several times, and seemed all in all quite pleased with the experience. (The wall and cabinets surrounding the play area did not fare quite as well.) Here's a short video of this (the longer, better video is too large to upload here - you'll have to see it on my Facebook page):



Finally, we graduated her to the bathtub. Ben filled it up a few inches with warm water, then got the small tub and put shampoo and water in it. The bath commenced from there (video is on Facebook as it's too large to upload here), and after a nice dousing, we took her out and she was dried off as thoroughly as possible before being set free again :)



And here ends the "How to Give Your Cat a Bath" lesson.

Now, one more video - this one is of Perry jumping for her animals the other night. Maybe we should enter her in the circus...

Kitten Playtime...and Other Pics

Perry is getting bigger and bigger - but she remains playful as ever. Tonight she was quite hyper and running around and then jumping up high in the air as we threw animals to her to catch. Of course, she didn't do it nearly as well when we videoed her, but here is a little snapshot into her skills:



Perry's playtime is not limited to running and jumping. The other night when we were playing Scrabble (on the table to try to avoid her messing up the game on the floor or coffee table), she insisted on sitting on top of the table so she could watch us. She of course wanted to bite the wooden letter holders and the letters too, but we gave her her own letter holder (with no letters) and that seemed to appease her for awhile... We also gave her Ben's letters at one point just for the purpose of a photo op :)


And Perry, the Scrabble-playing kitten:



And while I'm at it (since I haven't updated this blog in about a million years), here are a couple other recent pics:

Pumpkin scones that I made last night using a Starbucks copycat recipe from the internet (they are super good): (Sorry the lighting is bad but our kitchen light is burnt out at the moment...it made for a challenging cooking experience, too, and all the more reason I was glad these turned out well!)


And, finally, a picture from Halloween (where we both look a little too mesmerized by the camera!) of us with our pumpkins we carved:

Kitten

Video of Perry the kitten:

Day Trip to Charlottesville

We took a trip today to Charlottesville to visit Jefferson's Monticello. It was beautiful with all of the fall colors. Only thing that'd have made it better would've been a blue sky! But, despite the somewhat dreary, overcast weather, we can't complain since at least it didn't start raining until we got in the car and began to drive away (yes, the timing was that perfect). We kind of missed Halloween/trick-or-treating, but then, we don't usually have many more than 2-3 trick-or-treater clusters in our neighborhood anyway. So, that's okay - the Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes were sufficient celebration of Halloween, I think :)

Enjoy these pictures, and try to imagine the colors about 10 times more brilliant (the pictures really don't do them justice - not sure if it's my camera or if the lighting was just bad from the overcast sky!).

Monticello & Halloween - 103109