Meadowlark Revisited

Sunday, September 17

Today was the better of the two weekend days.  We had plans to hike in a nearby state park and have a picnic afterwards.  But that was before Mui was diagnosed with having tendonitis.  The doctor ordered him to take it easy, so we stayed home and edited a bit of his Alaska video footage (to be posted shortly).  By 3:00p, however, we could no longer stand being caged inside.  With blue skies, sunshine, and temps in the mid-70F range (24C), the fall day was simply much too nice to resist.  Hopping into the car, we drove to our old standby — yes, we went to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.

A quiet fall day at Meadowlark.

Though the parking lot was filled to overflowing, there were few people down by Lake Caroline; everyone must have been at the Atrium for an event.  No complaints from us!  Finding Mui a comfortable seat with a view, I set off to see if I could find some photo ops.

Darn; he saw me!

You know I clicked the shutter a few times …

Milkweed gone to seed.
the filaments from the follicles are hollow and coated with wax;
they are a good insulator.

The orange and black insect is a large milkweed bug.
these bugs survive on the seeds and tissue of the plant.

fall color

managed to find another pottery piglet hidden in a flowerbed.

Eventually I returned to Mui’s side, we moved to a bench overlooking the lake, and enjoyed a light snack in lieu of the al fresco lunch we had planned to have after our hike.   So, the weekend didn’t turn out exactly as we had hoped, but we enjoyed our short outing anyway.  We’re supposed to have more great weather next weekend; maybe we can give our hiking plans another shot then.

Pick Your Own Apples

Saturday, 2 October

I was sitting in my office the other day when a friend approached me with an apple in her hand. No ordinary apple, mind you. It was a golden delicious, picked right off the tree. I graciously accepted and took a bite. Ohhh my … can you say yummmmmm! It was juicy … it was sweet … it was crisp. Crunch, crunch, crunch … soon, all that was left was the core.

And that’s the reason why we went apple picking at Rinker Orchards in Stephens City, Virginia today.

Google Maps image showing the route to Rinker Orchards.

We couldn’t have picked a better day to go apple picking. When we left the house at 9:00a, it was comfortably cool (57F/14C) with plenty of sunshine that warmed the day up nicely. With the usual weekend traffic jams non-existent, the 1½ hour drive was pleasant.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect when we arrived at the orchard. Seeing a bunch of people filling paper sacks with apples, we headed in that direction first. We were soon put straight. “They’re bagging for a Boy Scouts fundraiser; you can buy some of those, or you can pick your own,” the owner told us. Well, we were there to pick apples, so we headed to the booth she pointed out to us.

Fresh apples ... a great idea for a fundraiser.

We started off by buying two empty paper bags at $14/each. After consulting the woman at the booth as to the varieties that would best suit our needs — crispy, crunchy ones for eating being foremost on our list — we headed off into the trees. A couple of Golden Delicious here, an Ida Red there, a few Yorks, and plenty of Nittanies … soon we were going back for more bags.

Mui, how do those Ida Reds look?

Left: One for eating; one for the bag.
Right: time to add some golden delicious to the bag.

Golden Delicious ... the name fits to a T!

How about adding some Yorks to the mix?

By the time we were done picking, we had four bags weighing 93 pounds (~42 kg). How about them apples!!!! (Sorry; couldn’t resist.)

These ought to last us a while!

The apples safely tucked into the trunk, Mui pulled out our collapsible picnic table and our ice chest on wheels, and we headed off to enjoy a light lunch in a quiet corner of the orchard.

This is the first time we've had occasion to use our collapsible
picnic table. It even has its own benches.

Beautiful weather and an al fresco meal … we’re happy.

We left the orchard around 1:00p, stopping at another farm to buy some fresh tomatoes. We checked out their apples, too. Not only did they not have the variety Rinker had, but they were also more expensive. We done good!

I’ll leave you with a photo op that caught my eye at the second farm … no way I could resist this one.

So tell me, what’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?

We had a terrific outing; definitely one that will be repeated next season. I have one question, though — Mr Mui, what are you going to do with all those apples? And before you answer the question … no, you can’t turn them all into batches of Apple Brown Betty!