Fall Photos

Fall Photos

This is a mishmash of photos from the past few months. In chronological order:

• In mid-September we had a fun day apple picking at Russell Orchards in Ipswich. The weather was such this year that the apples ripened 2-3 weeks earlier than usual. So even though we went a week or two earlier than we usually do the apples were already beyond peak. We managed to pick enough for a delicious pie, though. After we had secured our apples we drove to nearby Rockport and had lunch on Bearskin Neck.
• At the end of September Tess brought us a live chipmunk again. Twice. Carol read somewhere that when your cat brings you a dead animal she is paying rent. When she brings you a live animal she is trying to teach you how to hunt. We keep capturing them and letting them go. Tess must think we are very stupid.
• At Roosevelt School third graders can opt to take musical instrument lessons all year long. Audrey chose cello. I haven't had the pleasure of hearing her practice lately - I need a refresher to see what she's learned!
• We visited the Topsfield Fair in October. The fair hosts a contest for largest pumpkin every year and often sees world records set. Last year the winner was about 1600 pounds. This year the record was blown away with a pumpkin coming in a few pounds over a ton!
• We had two batches of leaf raking this year: one after Hurricane Sandy brought down about half the leaves and another the weekend before Thanksgiving when most of the leaves have fallen. Both times I made a big pile for the girls. They spent hours jumping into it and burying themselves. Usually a few neighbor kids join in.
• Charlotte finally lost her first tooth after it was loose forever. Then not long after, she lost the other lower front tooth. It's hard to get a photo of the gap!
• In early November we visited the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary. As you know it's our favorite place. It's especially fun in the fall and winter when the birds are eager to eat our of your hand. We keep the car stocked with bird seed now. We visited on a Saturday and stayed for a few hours.

  The girls wanted to return the next day so I took them while Carol did a project at home. I had no agenda and just let the girls lead me. We spent five hours there! We fed birds, of course, and we also wandered the trails and we spent almost an hour just sitting on a bridge playing with sticks in the mud on the pond bottom.

  We had so much fun that weekend that the girls begged us to go back again the next weekend! We spent several hours there again and even branched out to some new trails.

• Friday of Thanksgiving weekend was forecast to be unseasonably warm so we headed to the beach. With a steady wind it wasn't as warm as we hoped but we still had a picnic and flew kites and enjoyed the sunshine and the atmosphere.