love hurts and apples glore

today i got up early to take cleveland into work to update his vaccines. well that was fun until i tried to restrain my own dog. he was very good for his exam and surprisingly did not flinch a muscle when they stuck the fecal loop up his rear and gave him his rabies and distemper vax. however, he was a complete demon dog for his blood draw and bordetella vaccine (which went up his nose), and i have the bruises to prove it. yep, my precious little boy put a hurt on his mommy today. many hours of training will now ensue. after that we returned home to ray and maisy. maisy was glad to see that cleveland survived the trauma, and cleveland was just glad to be home.

ray had decided that he wanted to go see some of the local apple orchards, and who am i to neglect my family of local fruit. off to the mountains of north carolina we went. we stopped at one apple/farm stand on the way that promises raspberries come thursday, but we didn't want to get any apples just yet. first orchard one the list...justus orchard. beautiful!!! trees, mountains, fresh fruit, and blue skies. the honeycrisps were already gone and the pink ladies were not ready yet. of the apples that i have tried in my life, those two are my favorites. neither were in season. but we asked one of the guys at the stand to recommend a type of apple based on liking those two. not only did he suggest a few other varieties, but whipped out his pocket knife and cut us samples. won't get that kind of service at the grocery store. rock on!!! we picked some apples right off the trees and also picked from a nice variety at the stand. we got a small bunch of turnips with the green tops and enjoyed a freshly made fried apple hand pie. then it was time to move on.

justus orchard apple stand.

so pretty!!

PINK LADIES. not ready to be picked. will be ready in two weeks.

watch out pink ladies... i am coming for you!!!

so many apples from just one tree. remarkable.

fresh with the morning dew.

i think these are the cameo variety.

sad looking charlie brown apple tree.

ray picking an apple.

hey lady, nice bushels! that's me! how about those apples!

next orchard on the list.....lunch! that's right...all that fried pie did was make us hungry. so we decided to skip the rest of the orchards and headed to hendersonville for lunch. ray, of course, wanted to eat at the irish pub. as we were walking to the pub, i found out that he apparently had been thinking about lunch at the pub since this morning, and after walking around the orchard and sweating just a bit, a cold beer did sound nice.

ooohhh beeeer!!! fish and chips with a cold one at the irish pub.

after a lunch like that, it's best to walk around a bit. hendersonville is a really cool little town with lots of nifty shops. there is also a chocolate shop that has really good fudge...we bought three different kinds. after that it was time to return home to nap. i also need to clean out the frig and think about what to cook for tomorrow. i still need to use up a heirloom squash, 1 orange pepper, and some sweet potatoes. i definitely want to try to make a rustic apple tart.

downtown hendersonville nc

museum. we did not go in. ray wanted to save it for another day. to nice to spend time indoors.

cool coke sign.

cool iron gate.

cool pharmacy sign

fudge!!!! double chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, and pumpkin.