a Michi-gander

October is the perfect time for a fall road trip!  So I headed a few hours north and met my friend Heather for a Lake Michigan adventure.

The dunes are steeper than I expected!  You can see tiny specks (people) making the climb in the second photo.  

So many gulls!

Lake Michigan is so pretty.

Lighthouses!!

We got some good weather and quite a bit of (nicely atmospheric) rain.

Even with the damp and the chill, we were able to orchard-hop...

...and totally dominate the area's largest corn maze!

The breaks in the storm...

...gave us time to leaf-peep...

...and check out some of the things that Michigan is famous for.

Well, I've never seen a black squirrel before, anyway!

We even got to sleep in a castle one night!

I had my own balcony in the Queen's Turret...

...that was perfect for a little late-night knitting!  

We came, we saw...and I got home juuuuust in time to celebrate Todd's half birthday with a burnt, sloppily-decorated cookie cake that pretty much accurately reflected my out-of-it state of mind after much driving and not quite enough sleep.

We still went for our walk this morning...

...and I love that it's sweater weather (this week), and that it's just enough cold for our leaves here to finally start changing.

Hooray for fall at last!

Have a great week!

chipmunk slam dunk

The apples are DONE!  In the end, we had between 30 and 40 pounds of apple...and that's processed apple slices, minus the weight of peels and cores.  

Todd holding just a small fraction of the peels generated

I've been folding big handfuls of apples into the weekly baked oatmeal, tossing a cup into fall salads, and I've finally found a great apple dessert recipe that's going into rotation here.  It's based on a popular Allrecipes entry, but I've made it significantly healthier.  It's so, so good.

German Apple Cake

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons pumpkin puree

1 TB vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 - 3 cups of diced/sliced apples

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x8 pan.  As with most recipes:  mix the wet and dry separately, combine, and stir in the apples.  Bake for about 35 minutes.  

If you care about that sort of thing, a big piece is about 125 calories.  It is especially good on day #2, and I think it would be AMAZING with a slick of cream cheese frosting.  PIE will be coming soon, and apple bread, and applesauce.  I can't wait!

The weather has remained unseasonably warm (85 degrees today!), and the tomatoes just keep coming, too.

Besides dehydrating sliced tomatoes for winter salads and soups, I've been making an all-purpose pizza/pasta sauce.  I use this recipe and it's the best sauce I've ever had!

A few leaves are changing here...

...but it's not really cold enough for the big color change yet.  I'm still seeing a ton of insect activity...

Carolina Leaf Roller cricket

Eupithecia moth caterpillar

...and plenty of the usual katydids, spiders, and moths on the porch that keep the kittens riveted.

Of course, our trail cams are still picking up tons, too.  So...many...deer.

Turkeys...

Rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, and plenty of coyotes.

We hear them howling at night too and it's such a cozy and essential component of fall around here.  

Speaking of creatures, Claudia is too old/pampered to hunt many of them now, but sometimes she surprises us.  I'll hear a loud meowing on the porch, and Claudia is coyly hinting at a great prize.

Then the big reveal...

...and the official offer.

This week, it was a chipmunk.

She waits patiently until she's sure that we aren't going to have a nibble (so far, we're on a five-year streak of abstaining from her gifts), and then she falls to, messily devouring it on our doorstep.  

Our indoor cats stare through the screen door in amazement.  I don't think they've ever seen food that doesn't come out of a can or bag.

They suspect that food procurement might cut into their nap time as well.

I think they may be right about that!

Have a great week!

peeler healer

I changed clothes three times today.  This morning, the temperature was 65 but it was humid, so I wore a sweatshirt and jean capris.  By noon, I was starting to get warm, so I put on a long sleeve t-shirt.  By 3 p.m., the sun came out, and the temperature rose to 75 degrees...that's t-shirt weather.  This is pretty common for early fall around here!  I'll be glad to finally put away my summer clothes.

More early fall stuff...it's apple picking time!

Where you have apples, you have critters...

deer scat

...and bugs.

unknown beetle larvae

Todd got the ladder out again and picked as many as he could reach.  I decided to start working through the pile so put on a podcast and peeled for two hours.  The next day, I could barely move.  The lamest middle-age injury ever...I'd pinched a nerve in my upper back (Todd helpfully reminded me that I've actually incurred much more ridiculous injuries than an apple peeling one)!  Thankfully, my mother-in-law ordered this astounding and life-changing gadget for us:

We also bought a deep freeze to accommodate the apples and tomatoes this year (and, in leaner years, individual muffin-tin ice cream cakes).  My back is almost back to normal, so I can start tackling this job:

I'm also experimenting with apple recipes.  So far, I've determined that I just don't like apple crisp...the filling is always too dry and the topping seems a bit sparse.  Apple cobbler is a little too decadent (so much butter!).  I've had better luck with plain apple cake, substituting pumpkin for the oil and reducing the sugar.  I'm still experimenting, but will post a recipe when I settle on one.

The weather had continued to be warm, and I'm still seeing lots of creatures.  

Rabbits...

Lots of katydids (they're drawn to our porch lights):

So many turkey vultures:

Even an intrepid eastern box turtle.

He was being bothered by one of the many yellow jackets that were swarming the apples:  

Look at that gorgeous shell!

Leaves are changing, slowly...

Like clockwork, boneset has burst to life along the sides of our daily hiking trail.

Boneset has been used for centuries for its amazing anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.  It was the go-to herb for dengue fever (colloquially, "breakbone fever"), an illness that caused incredible pain in the bones.  Boneset alleviated the pain, giving it its unique name.  I look forward to it every fall.  It's nice to see delicate white flowers against the bright colors of the changing leaves!

Otherwise, loving all the berries...

shrub honeysuckle

...and lazy cats, lolling in the early fall sun!

Frances

"The Barnacle"

Have a great week!