Apples Everywhere

Happy Thursday Everyone!
It's a foggy morning outside right now and I'm having a fairly lazy morning catching up on my friends blogs. I've spent huge amounts of time reading blogs the past couple of nights when I couldn't sleep. I drained my ipad battery to 5% on three different occasions if that tells you how much I've read. The problem is that there are so many interesting people and blogs out there and I keep finding more. Some of them read like stories and I find myself going all the way back to the beginning of the blog. I did that with two of them yesterday and last night, reading 3-5 years worth of posts! Oh my! Now I need to get more productive. I can read a book and knit at the same time due to a nifty book holder I picked up at a craft fair a couple of years ago. But I can't read blogs because you have to constantly scroll down and I get frustrated only knitting a stitch or two before it's time to scroll again. :-)

Now I told you on Tuesday that I was off to the orchard to buy some apples. I had planned to take a leisurely walk around and get some pictures because, after all it was Tuesday and who would be at the orchard besides me? Oh. My. Goodness. There were at least a dozen school buses, plus daycare vans, mommy vans and miscellaneous other vehicles when I arrived. I tried three different orchards and it was the same thing there. Now, you know I love kids but the quiet photos I had planned were out. Kids everywhere. Climbing on things not meant to be climbed on. Hilarious. Really. I felt for those teachers and moms. I've been there, oh yes I have. So I settled for a few photos that I took as I stopped along the roadside.

This first one is as I was driving into the very first orchard and the other two are of the beautiful hills and fall colors.

This is a log home that I absolutely drool over every time I drive by. Unfortunately there wasn't a good place to pull over and get a picture on the two lane highway.

An alpaca and llama farm not far from our house. Aren't they adorable?

Signs pointing the way to the myriad of orchards. These are all within about 15-20 minutes of our home and are located at the base of Mt. Spokane.

The little shop at one place had lots of jams and jellies to purchase.

Of course apples were purchased and made into applesauce and pie filling.

Sometime since last fall I have loaned my apple peeler/corer/slicer out and it didn't return to me. I didn't discover this fact until I got home and began peeling the box full of apples. Oh my aching hands! I've gotten spoiled with my Pampered Chef slicer. But, I persevered and now have about a dozen freezer bags full of apples.

This flaming bush belongs down the street from us. A sure sign of fall.

My English roses are still hanging in there, although we have had some very heavy frosts this past week and I expect it to stop blooming very soon.

And last, but not least, I cut some of my lavender and have it hanging in bunches to dry. Any ideas on what to do with it? I didn't cut much because I've never dried it before and want to see how it turns out. Maybe I'll do more next year.

And now I'm going to take a box of books to the post office for my dear mom-in-law. After that, an afternoon of knitting on Alex's scarf maybe?

Have a lovely Thursday my friends.

Blessings,
Betsy