Yesterday, I went on an outing with my mum, and my friends Lissa and Marlow. Lissa told us of an apple orchard in Montgomery Creek, which she used to frequent with her family, and she invited us to take a drive with her to visit it once more.
It was unseasonably warm yesterday; between 80 and 90 degrees F. and not a cloud to be seen. Very pleasant weather for our drive.
Before we left town, we got coffee from my favourite café, and then stopped at World Market. Whilst Mum and Lissa looked at some pretty cabinet knobs, Marlow and I tried on hats. Fun fact: Solemn wood nymphs love hats almost as much as they love shoes. When Mum and Lissa were finished, Marlow and I bought a couple of Ramune (a Japanese carbonated beverage).
We then stopped at a tea house to pick up a box of white rose tea I had ordered, and bought some sandwiches to eat on the way.
The drive was lovely. As the elevation increased, the autumn colours grew in intensity. The foliage seemed a series of watercolour landscapes, blending lemon yellow, cardinal red, and burnt orange with the remaining verdant tints left over from summer.
About forty-five minutes later, we reached our destination. The orchard itself was a lovely place, with a pretty white farm house nestled behind apple trees and spruce groves, with a fine view of the mountains.
When we stepped out of the car, we were first greeted by a fluffy calico cat (the true owner of the place, I suspect), whose name, I later learnt, was Sassy. She was a dear, sociable little thing, and Marlow and I remained several minutes in the drive, paying our respects.
It was not the sort of orchard at which the customers pick for themselves; the apples were stored and sold in the little white bard next to the farm house, separated by variety in wooden crates. Quite a wide variety there was. Mum selected some little dark ones called Arkansas Blacks, green speckled ones called Ozarks, big pink ones called Wine Saps, and little pink and yellow ones called Pink Ladies.
After the purchase was made, we went out and took some photos together. Here are a couple of them.
On the way to the orchard, I had seen a large sign reading "Gift Shop and Local Honey" so on the way back, we stopped there. What we saw, however, was a small, out-of-the-way house, across from several locked storage sheds fashioned after old-time buildings (post office, mercantile, black smith, etc...). It all looked rather deserted, and at that point we rather doubted the existence of the advertised gift shop, but Lissa and I decided to walk over to the little house and see if the confusion could be explained away.
Our knock was answered by a darling-looking elderly man and his two dogs. When we asked about the sign, he explained that the place had been previously owned by a different elderly man who had passed away, and left the buildings, and his very large supply of antiques in his care, and he simply had not been able to remove the sign yet.
He had no objection to our looking things over, however, and kindly unlocked all of the little buildings for us to examine their contents at leisure.
We saw some fascinating things; old Avon perfume bottles and china, antique framed pictures, and the like. One of the sheds was full of old books, among which I spotted a German dictionary marked for seventy-five cents. I knew that it would interest Marlow, so I brought it out to show her, and the man kindly let her have it for free.
And then we went home. It was quite a lovely day. We all agreed that we must take such another excursion together before long.
After Marlow settled into my room, we drank our Ramunes. Since there was no postcard, or anything of the sort to be purchased for my year board, Marlow suggested that I cut off the label fronts from our ramune bottles, and use those for the day's remembrance.
Good night, or gute nacht, as Marlow might say.
