Carter Mountain, C'ville

Back on the mountain and it smelt of fermenting apples and was warm! Lots of fujis, a tractor ride and picnic with view - no Bold Rock cider as solo carer but was tempted by M.

Shame the elections didn't swing things far enough to the left in VA whilst we picked and spotted, 'I voted' stickers.

Fall on Park

The leaves are back.... despite this pile.

Beaver Lake, Pocahontas State Park

Rain and autumn leaves made for a mild stroll... The Conservation Club for Going-Extinct-Animals was started here. See next post for their first fundraiser...

High Bridge Trail, Farmville, Prince Edward County

Yup it's a high bridge and a long bridge with not quite autumn leaves below. Quite far south west of Richmond in a dorp famed for its furniture warehouses and racial segregation long after the rest of America had pulled it together.

Late Fall Harvest, Urban Farm, RVA

I returned to a totally changed farm landscape and so many greens to be gathered in - mustard, collards, spinach, kale, arugula aka rocket - and to come bok choi and cilantro aka coriander. It is a feast out there.

Pumpkin Patch, East RVA

A new venue for the gathering of the season's most inedible fruit and this lot were lain out (not grown!) in a field, under some electricity pylons!

The tractor ride took us through a spooky tin garage and was kind of fun. The best bit though was the hay bail maze that didn't actually have a centre point.

Sunday in RVA

Just a lazy, autumny Sunday that included a soup picnic by the lake and then an intense ballet show about hispanic woman who lived through history to become icons of freedom. P&J did DIY instead.

Halloween Costumes 2014

The year of Dracula and a rare apple flower. No prizes but fake blood a winner.

Fall and Fairies, More Pre School

Not Fallen Fairies, as I found myself saying to the teacher... so light boxes and autumn leaves, some black Sharpie outlines, bright paint and lots of J's concentration produced this leaf-art at school and at home.

Pocahontas State Park, Chesterfield

'Giving a bit of attitude', is one of J's favourite phrases from nursery. This weekend it applied to her eldest sibling in buckets! However a walk in the woods in the afternoon sun got everyone happy.

DIY Graveyard on Floyd

No polystyrene graves for us. With a hand-saw and some wood ends we have our own spooky set, with blood (!) thanks to J.
- Rise from the Dead
- Dare to Enter
- Here Lies 'Het Beest'

Tomorrow the artful front yard display and extension cord joy. First P needed to test-drive his new lawn mower leaf catcher set-up... with dust bowl results.

Fall Festival, Fox

Cleopatra designed her own costume with the help of google image search and then sourced the fabric from Fantastic Thrift.

Her sibling, the fat zebra, came from next door and her lovely friend won a prize for being a whole genre - POP art! Lichtenstein would have been proud. Her skin was marked with even white dots and her speech bubble, read 'Gasp!' We were seriously impressed.

Pumpkin carving on Floyd

J & M started with a baby and its sister (pictured), now we have a mum and dad too and maybe next year some aunts and uncles. The seeds were boiled & roasted and loved!

Autumn days...

The sandbox with a drink and a long curly straw. Today's art is merry-go-round.

On the sidewalks are incredible leaves I can't name, but we collect...

Grandma's Pumpkin Patch, Chesterfield

J's first school trip... out into Chesterfield County to Grandma's Pumpkin Patch. We rolled them, before we picked them, to check for the perennial black widows and weight-tested them, before we wandered. It was lovely, low-key fun.

J impressively found the lock box for the tractor key, and opened it, ready to start the engine...

Signs on Floyd

"No more letters?!",  J exclaimed in utter horror on spotting this sign at the end of our street.

No more leaves and some creative back alley parking is the reality, as well as a very swanky smooth, new road surface.

Home-schooling just got even better thanks to the input of these guys - we know about little millers and big millers, dump trucks and something I couldn't translate that scraped the surface clean.

PS: Raking our leaves street-ward was darn hard work.

Thanksgiving fruit

So we flouted convention and thought apple not pumpkin pie and headed for the mountains... In clear sunshine we careered down through the orchards towards the pink ladies and gathered them in until our bags sagged. Then climbed back upwards and lay on a grassy slope recovering and chomping our way through our fruits and offering directions to the other assorted families heading steeply downwards.

M pulled off a great sweet shortcrust when we got home and made this brief introduction to her Thanksgiving table...

Friday Adventure, Pocahontas State Park

Crispy crunchy leaves amidst the chill, plus some impressively fallen trees and decent battle worthy boughs - Pocahontas is just the best local wilderness.

Pumpkins, Ashland Berry Farm

As Hurricane Sandy approached and Virginia declared a State of Emergency, I decided that the priority was pumpkins. So in sharp winds and low grey cloud we bumped across farmland in a tractor heading out to the last of the pumpkin crop.

The deal is $20 for all you can carry for three paces - with some coaching P secured six for our doorstep. The garden centre was deserted of plants and people - all tucked up away from the wind - though the staff remembered us from last year, as they pulled down the tarpaulins and closed for the season. J measured in at just over 3 feet compared to last year's just under.

The Miniature Break, Yorktown

A lack of Tom Tom obedience landed us on the Colonial Parkway - a glorious open road alongside the water, with pine trees and creeks and just out of sight -  the world's largest naval weapons base.

The beach was magical... still and empty - we lay back and warmed our skin before leaping into the well-chilled water. M trained up future jelly-fish-catchers and recovered from the trauma of her half-day truancy (she wept most for her missed Pollution Patrol duties).

The sun began to set, the day-tripping schooner came in and the canoes went out for some night fishing. Headed home, after pizza and cocktails, with the moon gleaming above the water.

Seriously, it's October the 24th and we're beach swimming - it's hard not to love!