Autumn

You guys, we're in the middle of fall and people are already wearing puffer coats and fur collars around these parts. I love living in a part of the world with all four seasons, but sometimes, Mother Nature gets all crankypants and decides to skip fall or spring entirely. 

A few weeks ago, C's parents hosted their annual Cider Fest on a perfect autumn day. They had about 40 friends and family members (it becomes sort of a reunion for C's high school friends) at their house in Pennsylvania, and his dad went all out on the decorations: scarecrows, hanging pumpkins, hand-carved wooden apples and old wine boxes painted with our initials. It was so sweet. 

They have an old cider press — dating to the late 1800s — which his dad renovated some 25 years ago. It's all manual, so they get bushels of apples from an orchard down the street, and then we throw them in,  press them down with a stick and crank it by hand until a fresh, sweet-smelling cider is strained into a bucket at the bottom. It's like my annual chance to get out of the city and play farmer.

And so, we drank cider, ate whoopie pies and kettle corn and apple pie (of course), and caught up on all of each other's adventures since last fall.