Fruits and Vegetables

What can you do with 200+ "blood peaches"? Well, I'm glad you asked! We spent this past weekend in VT with my parents, as they were desperately trying to find ways to preserve the peachy bounty heaped on them by a neighbor. The blood peaches are small and fairly tart, with red flesh (as the name suggests) and thick fuzzy skins. Apparently they are also called "Indian Blood Cling" peaches, though I'm not sure why, and they are possibly an old cross between a type of peach that grows wild in the southern states and a French variety known as the Sanguinole. In the end we peeled, quartered and canned about 20 jars of them, while Mom froze some more for smoothies and made still others into apple-peach fruit leather.

To round out our produce-filled weekend, we also went to a Garlic Festival in Monkton, where Aiden helped churn (and sample) Garlic Ice Cream and we voted on the best garlic recipe after sampling many many breath-altering dishes, from garlic-fudge truffles to anti-vampire soup. And then we had the quintessential fall outing- apple picking. Boyer Orchards in Monkton had many varieties of pick-your-own ready, and we sampled our way through the orchard mixing up all the varieties in a single bag. If you like it, pick a bunch. If you don't, don't. Who cares what kind it is?! We also tried to pick pears, but the Boscs were not yet ripe and the Bartletts past, so we settled on getting some at the farmstand, along with a slightly obscene number of cider donuts. Hey, it's not fall without cider donuts!

Squeeze Hug!

A Fair and a Death March

This weekend we got to spend time with Grandpa Dada, HaPa, and Grandma Sally. Grandpa Dada came up on Friday and we immediately dragged him to a Scottish dinner hosted by our friends the Andersons (which was lovely, but possibly a tad strange for poor Grandpa Dada as there were lots of kilts and swords involved). He survived though, and on Saturday after soccer we put him to work with Andy digging out and moving gigantic slabs of granite all around the backyard. That didn't kill him either, so we decided the next thing to do would be a hike, officially to give Kimball some exercise. Since I had to drop off a sign there, we went to the Hay Reservation, one of the Forest Society's properties in Newbury. I knew there was a nice view from the top of Sunset Hill, and remembered it being a nice, easy hike. After we'd been hiking about a half hour, all uphill, Andy started telling Grandpa Dada about my reputation (in his opinion, mind you) for dragging the family on "death marches" which generally involve endless slogs through inhospitable and/or unreasonably steep terrain, usually with a plethora of stinging insects, poisonous prickly plants, and in sub-zero or baking temperatures. As the stories went on and on, our hike also went on and on... and I think Grandpa Dada was starting to believe Andy by about the fifth time I said encouragingly, "We're almost at the top! .... i think" Of course, in the end we all made it to the top of Sunset Hill (Aiden was sure it was named that because it takes you until sunset to get there) and back down again, tired but intact. It was a bit longer than I had remembered, but...

Kyle in kilt at the Scottish party

Haley in her scottish plaid, sacked out at the table

The top of Sunset Hill- we made it!

In the blind at Low Plain

On Sunday we went on another hike (ah, but I did not lead this one, so all was well) and then drove up to the Tunbridge Worlds Fair to meet HaPa and Grandma and have some real fun! It was a gorgeous fall day and we enjoyed everything the fair had to offer- pig races, baby chicks and farm animals, twisted balloon creations, climbing walls, lots of rides, antique farming implements, and fair food. We learned that Haley loves lemons straight-up and spicy hot italian sausage (really, I did not get to eat even half of mine) and Aiden loves maple cotton candy. HaPa loves kettle corn and Grandma chocolate creemees. They had deep fried oreos but after a final round of maple creemees, no one had any room left for to try one. We thought of shipping one to Crazy Uncle Dan but didn't think it'd be very tasty after 3 days in a fedex box.

Pig races

Aiden's first roller coaster ride

Aiden on the monster climbing wall

woo hoo!

On the ferris wheel

View of about a quarter of the fair, from the ferris wheel

Maple Creemee!

Eating a lemon

Kimball's new sweater. She sits outside and shivers without it!

Saturday Morning Soccer

Aiden wanted to try kindergarten soccer this fall, so we have been spending our Saturday mornings on the sidelines of the Outing Club soccer fields. The weather has turned now and mornings are chilly, so it's usually a coffee in one hand, dog leash in the other, Haley in the backpack or toddling around in the dewy grass. A lot of Aiden's Windy Hill buddies are also playing soccer, so that makes it more fun, for both Aiden and us. There's still a wide range of interest and ability with regard to the actual game at this point... some kids are really competitive and even understand that they should get back towards their own goal on defense when the other team has the ball, while others frequently lie down to stare at the clouds or run off the field to pet someone's puppy. Aiden is somewhere in the middle, I think. He's into the game, but he likes to give the super-competitive types a wide berth - he's ecstatic when they score and they're on his team though! All in all, it's a great way to spend a beautiful fall morning, laughing and cheering at the soccer fields.

Turn, Turn, Turn...

Aiden and Kimball at Low Plain

In the one of the blinds

Common Green Darner

Some birding

Well, the seasons have already started to turn in New Hampshire. Days are much shorter, nights are chilly, and the red maples are blazing in the swamps already. We've had a lovely sun-filled summer so it's hard to complain even though it's a bittersweet time of year. I'm looking forward to baking squash and picking apples, making hearty soups and enjoying the fleeting crisp fall days. It could be worse.

These squash grew in our compost bin. They're all from the same plant as far as I can tell, but what are they? And more importantly, are they edible?

Little doo with the mystery squash

Caterpillar of the Spotted Tussock Moth

Weekends have been at home for a stretch now, which has been really nice. We haven't gotten anything spectacular done, just tidying up the house, going for long walks in the woods with Kimball (she's turning into a great little woods dog), watching Aiden play kindergarten soccer, and going to an occasional birthday party. Aiden's friends seem to all have been born in late summer and fall! Zoey had a witch & wizard themed party, and then the following day Molly E. had a baking party, both of which Aiden was the lone boy at. He really doesn't seem to notice (I think it's the age... in two years girls will definitely have cooties but they're blessedly germ-free now) and just does his own thing if the girls get too "girly" on him. Haley's walking all over the place and tiring herself out enough for 2-hour naps each day (amazing for Haley). She's got a little attitude on her though, that one! If she thinks no one is paying attention to her properly she just flat out yells at the top of her lungs, impressively loud for a 1 year old. In the grocery store or soccer sidelines that usually has the desired effect of bringing surrounding conversation to a standstill and everyone's eyes peeled on her. Which is making the habit a bit hard to break...

If you see her and she yells, please ignore it!

Aiden at Zoey's wizard party

The crew at Molly E's cupcake party. They decorated their own chef hats and aprons with fabric markers.

Haley got a chef hat too!