Apple Autumn

Autumn has finally arrived on the farm. It's a season of dramatic skies, colors, and fallen leaves...

The dragonflies patrol the pond like tiny colorful helicopters...

 

 Sunsets, always pretty here, seem even more spectacular in the fall.

...reflecting their color in the upstairs window...

 Our old dog Shirley has turned more colorful in her autumn years, too, her face dusted now with white...

Autumn is, of course, apple time on the farm.

Jessica, Kevin and Ian came down from Washington for apple cider weekend. As always when they come, Jessica cooked tons of delicious food for us. On Saturday, with friends, we potlucked and pressed apples... but I did not, believe it or not, remember to pick up my camera and take photos of the cider making... or anything else until the last day of  J & K & I's visit, just before they drove home.

We sent them home with farm produce, of course. Kevin picked apples off the tree out our back door, the one I won't let anyone raid for cider. It has wonderful eating and baking apples.

Ian helped with the long apple picking basket (while holding onto his two bags of Pamela's Bread Mix. He loves that bread and I had bought plenty to share with him). 

They also took some of my Russian Black heirloom tomatoes. They're not really black, just shades of red and green... pretty and very tasty.

Ian fed the llamas apples. The llamas love cider weekend because kids always feed them lots of apples.

It has been gently raining off and on since everyone left. We need the rain badly in this drought year, but I'm glad it held off until after apple cider weekend on the farm.