Cabin Trip and Festival

Color in the forest.

I've been away at the cabin for a few days, so I haven't done any work on the walking stick this week.  I thought my readers would enjoy some of the pictures from this trip. 

Stone steps leading to the stream.

We had a lot of foggy days and rain while we were up there.  Fortunately the rain held off and it was only overcast to a light mist during the Wine and Garlic Festival held at Rebec Vineyards.  My husband and I have been to this festival for a number of years and we really enjoy it.  The temperature is moderate this time of year and it makes the festival going experience much more enjoyable than the blazing heat of summer.  As its name implies, there are wine tastings and garlic flavored foods.  And there is fresh garlic to sample as well.  I had no idea there were so many different types of garlic.  The motto of the festival is "It's Chic to Reek."  And if you sample all the garlic, you will.  If you go to this festival, plan on eating at least one sample of garlic, or you will be overwhelmed by everyone else.  I love garlic, so this festival is a treat.  The music at this festival is also great.  For the non-garlic lovers there are festivals at other vineyards coming up.  The whole area has been a hot bed of concerts, wine festivals, craft beer festivals, and local fairs since September.  If you can't make one of the festivals this year, start planning for next year. 

Wild apple tree.

Although it is a little early, we were up to do a winter shut down on the cabin.  We have to drain the water from the pipes so the pipes don't freeze during the winter.  We plan to be up at the cabin some more this fall, but it gives us peace of mind not to have to worry about dropping everything to have to run up to the cabin unexpectedly because of an early cold snap.  We have done so much work on this place, that we don't want to have to replace burst pipes.  Every time we go up until spring, we will have to shut the cabin down for winter again, but at least we won't have to spend time replacing water pipes.  

My husband working in the knee wall in the attic.

 

My husband was doing work inside during this trip.  It was a comfortable temperature to be working in the attic.  I mostly worked outside this trip, getting rid of brush.  And of course we had to get up leaves.  Some trees dropped their leaves early this year.  Other leaves are just coming into their high color.  I had hoped to get some good pictures of the autumn color, but most days were gray and misty so the colors were not as bright.

Night time photo of the moon over the mountain.

There has been a lot of rain this year.  The stream and the river are running quite high compared to the years of drought that came across the region.  You can see the benefit of the rain in the number of apples on the trees.  There are many wild apple trees up there.  The story has it that Johnny Appleseed came through this area.  These trees may be descendents of those apple seeds planted so long ago.  

We picked apples while we were there.  Wild apples look different from the apples you see in the grocery store.  They are smaller and have lots of dark spots on them.  The spots are molds that attack the apples.  Since the apples aren't sprayed, they have a lot of spots.  That is okay.  The apples are still good to eat.  I use them for cooking apples.  I baked an apple crisp while we were there. 

My parents had friends at the bottom of the mountain who had an apple orchard.  My father and his friends were allowed to pick the apples that had fallen from the trees.  These apples were called windfall apples.  They were not good for sale because the apples bruise when they hit the ground.  However, the apples were still good to eat, and my father would pick bushels of them and bring them to the cabin to make apple cider.  The cider press is now old and in sorry shape.  My husband has plans to refurbish it in the future.  Add it to the list of things that need doing up there.  (At the festival, one vendor was selling hand painted signs.  One sign said, "Camp Workyourassoff."  I fully understand this sign.  Having a cabin, or any type of vacation home for that matter, is a labor of love.  It is a lot of work, but you do it because you love the place and the good times you have there.)

There was a beautiful full moon while we were up there.  Even with the clouds and mist, you could still see the silhouette of the mountains and trees in the moonlight.  I took some pictures, but they were pretty much unusable until I started working with photo enhancing on the computer.  I'm posting one, but I don't know how well they will show up on the blog.  Maybe the Google photo enhancements can sharpen them up a bit.  

A note to readers.  The location is listed as Mechanicsville, Virginia, which is where I live.  These photos were taken in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.