#17. Pick Apples

I suppose if summer was ever supposed to end autumn is just about the perfect way of easing us out of it. It's beautiful. Especially in central Virginia, where the trees explode with every warm hue imaginable. And from the standpoint of tradition there's much to be enjoyed. School starts back up but no one's super jaded yet. Football season starts up and Hoo fans get to enjoy a moment of hope before the cold grip of reality snatches that away. There are leaves to crunch. There are pies to bake. There are sweaters to wear. There are bonfires to dance around.

And of course there are apples to pick.

As it happens the first brotherhood event of the semester for Alpha Phi Omega, my coed community service fraternity, was a trek up to Carter Mountain Orchard to do some apple-picking. It's a lovely place. I sat on that very porch and stared out over Charlottesville, munching on an exquisite apple donut and musing on the many stories I hope to be able to tell by the end of this year.

Options for picking were pretty sparse. In fact the only thing in season at the moment are the golden delicious apples. I can never remember which ones I enjoy. And I really should, because apples are such a hit-or-miss fruit. Too often they can be too mushy, too watery, too bland, too bitter, but as it turns out the golden delicious are the exact kind of apple for me. They're right on that line between sweet and tart, they have a perfect crunch, and (this part is crucial) they are the perfect compliment to peanut butter.

So we strolled among the trees plucking apples and taking a nibble or two. It being early in the season and it being a particularly gray day there were still plenty of apples on the lower branches, but what's the fun in that? Half of apple-picking, for me, is an excuse to climb trees and display my mad-hops.

After about 20 minutes of frolicking I was satisfied with my haul and it was time to move on to stage two: my first-ever wine-tasting with a brand new friend, Regina! Regina came to UVA for grad school and transferred into our chapter. I have the privilege of being cobigs with her, and I want to say, outright, that Regina's awesome. As a family her, Lizzie, and our little Tudor went rappeling about a week ago, and Regina totally jumped out of her comfort zone and, simultaneously, over the edge of a mountain, in the interest of bonding with us.

So as a token of thanks for doing something crazy with us, we went and sampled the orchard's selection of wine. I'm not counting this as my first visit to a vineyard because Carter's is still first and foremost an orchard and second I didn't go with the express purpose of purchasing a bottle of wine.

But I did. I have a bottle of their Cabernet sitting on my shelf. I now also have a tenuous grasp of wine terms and a slightly less tenuous grasp of what I like. But we'll cover that in the vineyard entry.

After wine-tasting I pounded another donut and rounded out my lazy sunday with an exquisite nap. All in all, a great day.A great start to the Fall. A great start to this blog.

Now I wish I'd bought more of those donuts.