Apple Harvest Time

 We hadn't visited an apple orchard for the past few years as the harvest had been terrible for one reason or another. This year was different though, and the trees were full of perfect apples-it almost makes you wonder if  they're using a new fertiliser, or planted more blight resistant trees or if they just resorted to luring a Scottish policeman to the orchard  had some good luck this year. Er...whatever they're doing, it seems to be working!

I guess I could ask one of the people that work here, though they're all dressed as woodland animals today for some odd reason.

We made it out alive home with about twenty pounds of apples, so we'll be enjoying a number of interesting dishes over the next couple weeks. I made a red onion and apple relish to go with black bean tacos tonight.

I have my glow-in-the-dark Halloween sign up. I adore Halloween. Dressing up and eating candy-what's not to like?! I know it is more than a month away, so I'm going slow with the decorations. I need to locate a few pumpkins for the front garden. This is my first wear of this beautiful Autumn cardigan. The skirt is new (to me) as well. More plaid-ah well, I'm a creature of habit.

I do like a novelty cardigan, but rarely find one in my size. This is from Talbots, and is a cotton/silk blend. It is quite warm-perhaps a bit too warm for outdoor wear at the moment, though indoors where air conditioning units are still going at full blast it is just about right. I don't remember buying the pheasant brooch, but it went well with the overall autumn vibe of the outfit. 

 This was also a first wear for these vintage Selby shoes I bought at Thrift World. They're not in the best shape, and it would tough to fix them, so I'm going to wear them until they fall apart and get my $1.98 out of them. If nothing else, they're large so they don't hurt my injured toe.

 These earrings have a matching brooch shaped like a tree.

Outfit Particulars:

Skirt-Goodwill

Vintage blouse-Goodwill

Cardigan-Hand-Me-Ups

Shoes-Thrift World

Socks-K Mart

Vintage handbag-New Life Thrift

Brooch-can't remember

Belt-Von Maur

Fragrance-vintage Shulton Friendship Garden

We also visited Heron Haven last weekend.

We went for the butterfly release.

It was somewhat anti-climactic as the butterflies didn't seem interested in flying out of the tent. Eventually, they just took the tent apart. I think the butterflies are tagged with chips so their migration patterns can be tracked. 

The pond was infested full of frogs. I mean, hundreds of them. Everywhere. I don't think I've ever seen that many frogs in one place. It was like a biblical plague or something (and there were locusts too)!  For those of you keeping track that's, frogs, locusts, fire, hail, darkness (remember that eclipse we were all ooohing and ahhing over a few weeks back?).  If I were the religious sort I'd be getting my spiritual shit in order. 

 Somebunny has been eating the flowers.

I don't know what the purple flowers are, but the yellow and black are Black Eyed Susans and the frilly yellow stuff is Goldenrod (the Nebraska state flower). It grows like mad and blooms late in the season adding interest to gardens and fields where most everything else has finished blooming. If you decide to grow it, be warned-it takes over. I had it on the farm, but I don't dare plant it in the city. The flowers can be soaked to make a beautiful yellow die. 

 As long as the weather stays nice, I'm willing to get outdoors and enjoy it-we can do our schoolwork outdoors as easily as in. Winters can be endless in Nebraska, so it makes sense to enjoy every nice day we get.

This wasn't a photo-op sign...it was a bean-bag toss game! They're just lucky no one lobbed one at their mugs.

Hope your week is off to a great start.