September Road Trip - Photos

Apples at the cabin.

Once again we have taken to the road.  This trip was a trip up to the cabin.  The old saying is that it is not the destination, it is the journey.  I love driving on the Virginia By-Way to get there.  It is wonderful to get away from the busy interstate and drive the scenic route.  I thought I'd share a few of the sights along the way. 

Apples in the yard.

The weather was warm and humid.  It was seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit when we arrived.  That was the warmest day of the trip.  The other mornings the highest temperature was seventy-one with a low of sixty-one.  Since we were working on the cabin, we were glad that the temperatures stayed in a comfortable level.

Everything is still green up there, but here and there you could see a little hint of red creeping in on the
Maple and Dogwood trees.  We have had a frequent rains throughout the summer and the vegetation has responded to that by being greener and brighter than I have seen it in years. 

All of the branches were as full as this one.

The apple trees are so loaded with apples that they are bent over almost to the ground. The photo of the green apples is the apple tree in the yard.  The red apples are one of the wild trees down the drive from the house.  Unfortunately, the apples were not quite ready to pick yet.  The flavor had not yet developed.  The apples should be ready in just a couple of weeks though.  I hope that we can get back up there in time to collect the some.  Otherwise, there are going to be some very happy deer and raccoon in the yard.

The hay is in.

One of the photos shows Kudzu growing over the trees.  It is a very fast growing vine.  The tall tale about Kudzu says that if a cow stays in one spot munching grass long enough that the Kudzu will rap around its legs and trap it.  Well, it does not grow quite that fast, but once it gets started it spreads like nothing I've ever seen.  It covers everything. Kudzu was brought to this country from Japan as a fodder plant for cattle.  I am not sure that the cattle like it all that much.  At any rate, the Kudzu escaped into the wild and really took off.  It seems to like the climate in the lower hills.  It does not grow above a certain altitude, so it has not come over the mountain to where the cabin is located.

Kudzu grows on everything.

Some of the photos show that the year is starting to wind down.  The corn is dry in the fields.  Barns are starting to fill up with hay.   Virtually all of the hay has been cut and rolled up into those giant rolls.  Pumpkins are starting to appear at outdoor markets and in decorations seen along the way.  It has been a fast year.  It does not seem like the first day of autumn should be just twelve days away. I have noticed that the daylight hours are now much shorter than they were just a couple of weeks ago. 

The mountains were very misty that morning.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from the road.  I am sorry if some of them are a little blurry.  It is hard to get a good picture while the car is in motion.  By the time I see something that would make an interesting picture, we are almost beyond it. 


I will be blogging about my project again on the next blog post.