It’s 11/11 once more, and I’m all set to post at 11:11. Seeing as I’ve already posted a list of eleven things (that goes up to 11), I thought I’d try something different. Below are 11 bits from my photo library that evoke 11:11. Can you identify what they are? (Click on the image to see the full photo.)
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I love the fall. I especially love fall in New England, with the stunning foliage and trips to pumpkin patches and apple orchards. (And you know we’re big fans of Apples in this household.)
On Sunday we paid a visit to a local apple orchard that has an apple tasting each year.
We’d been apple-picking at this orchard in previous years, but I wasn’t sure what to expect for the tasting. It turns out that it was a very low-key event, with not too many people. But there were a whole lot of apples.
Inside the barn/farmstand building, they had set up a long row of wooden bins, each with a different kind of apple. In front of each bin was a little bowl with apple slices, and attached to each bin was a tag with the name of the variety, and bits of information about the cultivar and its history. I felt like I should have taken notes. (For example, I wish I could remember to tell you which kind was the most popular apple in the US in 1900.)
I knew that the orchard claims to grow over 50 varieties of apples, but I thought they’d perhaps have a dozen or so available to taste. I was quite impressed that they had probably closer to 2 dozen kinds out on display with samples set out for tasting. It turns out the folks at the orchard store apples that are typically only available earlier in the season specifically for the tasting weekend.
In spite of all the varieties, I ended up choosing a couple of bags of some familar apples: Macouns (a Mac variety) and Empires (which I love for making applesauce). And now I should have plenty of apples to make an apple crisp.
The orchard has this gigantic walk-in refrigerator. I wish had someone in there for scale.
Apples of my eye.
Theo, post-smooch-from-Phoebe.
I’ve been meaning to share some more stories and photos from our trip to Spain, which was (shockingly) now over a month ago. I have largely given up on sharing a detailed chronlogical account of the trip, so I’ll dive in here.
In Sevilla, my mother and I had the fantastic opportunity to go on a tapas tour with azahar, Sevilla blogger extraordinaire of casa az and Sevilla Tapas. (Yes, you should be jealous. It was an absolutely fantastic evening: the company, the sights and the food could not have been better.)
To make you even more jealous, I thought I’d share with some highlights of our evening. With photos.
We met up with az around 9:30 p.m. on a Friday, after I got Theo settled in for bed. (John was kind enough to be the one to stay home with Phoebe and Theo.) We arranged to meet at a little park near our apartment, which was bustling with folks heading out for dinner, and then walked through Sevilla’s maze of streets and alleys to our destinations. We went to 3 very different places for tapas, each with a distinct charm and menu.
Our first stop was El Rinconcillo, which az tells us is the oldest bar in Sevilla. I loved the decor of the place, which was dominated by dark woods, patterned tiles, and shelves well-stocked with bottles. (Not to mention hanging hams.) We stood at the bar.
Our second stop was Modesto, a more modern, bustling bar-restaurant with friendly waiters and lots of outside tables. (We sat inside at the bar, though.)
Our third and finally stop was La Sal, a charming and elegant small restaurant specializing in fresh seafood dishes. We sat inside at a table by the window.
Peering in through the wide open window of El Rinconcillo from the sidewalk.
The bartenders wrote the tabs on the bar in chalk. They’d cross out the numbers once the tab was settled.
My glass of sparkling water at Modesto.
Some olives and az’s beer, and a really big bowl of really big capers.
The Land Squid.
One of the waiters at Modesto gave us red carnations. Az put one in her hair.
Tuna tataki at La Sal. I think the stuff on top was something leeky. The sardines, which az cut in 3 for us to share, are in the background.
The very yummy goat cheese salad with carefully halved (not roasted) tomatoes.
Az also posted about this night, though in a more timely manner! In case you missed her post back in September, check it out: “girls night out.”
If you want to be tormented by photos and descriptions of delicious food about daily, you might want to follow Sevilla Tapas on twitter. (Or join the Facebook fan page.)
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This post is trying to pass itself off as a Monday Mission. The assignment for this week was to write a post in the form of a menu. I actually did such a task once before about 2 years ago, and you should totally go read what I wrote before, because I re-read it, and I cracked myself up. (“cereal: it’s what’s for dinner“) Also, go check out the other Monday Missions at Painted Maypole. The illustrious Painted herself has a brilliantly creative menu posted that I would have liked to have written myself!
Phoebe and I designed and carved this jack-o-lantern together. I like it.
You’ll be happy to know that I’ve solved the Mystery of the Feed Reader Mess. I hate to spoil the plot for those of you who haven’t read all about it, but it turns out that the problem was alien frog creatures.
(In case it isn’t clear to you, I am setting the bar very low with this NaBloPoMo business.)
Yo, dudes! Can anyone tell me what happened to Google reader? At some point in the last few weeks, it stopped displaying blogs in folders, and I can’t make sense of the big jumble of unread posts that are accumulating. I keep popping over, realizing that it’s all a big mess, stabbing at a few unread posts, and then wandering off again. I think i may have to move along yet another feed reader, or revert to Safari. Is there some way to fix Google reader? What are other people using these days for a feed reader?
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In other news, Holly and I are putting together the October Just Posts, which we’ll put up in a few days. (Possibly Friday.) If you read and/or wrote any posts on topics of social justice in the month of October, we’d love to include them in our roundtable. We need your help to keep the Just Posts alive!
Want to learn more? Check our the JP info pages here or there.
For those of you new to the study of pants, it may be helpful to learn a few key terms commonly used by the field’s top panthropologists. As an exercise, please use one of the following words in a sentence.
This load of pants was for a Monday Mission, hosted by Painted Maypants. This week’s assignment was to write a post in the form of a vocabulary list.
Hellfire and dalmatian.
As I mentioned, Phoebe wanted to be a firefighter for Halloween this year. Her costume turned out to be a cinch. She’d gotten a freebie fire hat at a recent daycare field trip to the firestation, and then our daycare provider had some other firefighter costume gear to lend us. A totally free costume.
Seeing as he doesn’t yet have a say in the matter, I figured I would dress Theo to go along with Phoebe’s firefighter. (As you may have noticed, I’m all about going with themes.) At first, I thought, “Theo can be a fire!” As I thought about the costume, however, I realized that there was a good chance that he would end up looking like a baby on fire. Um…perhaps a tad more disturbing than I had in mind.
So, the plan was to go with a dalmatian (the traditional firehouse dog).
For the pre-Halloween party on Tuesday, I hadn’t managed to get a dalmatian costume together. Theo went as a (very cute, and still black and white spotted) cow, instead. On Wednesday, I stopped by a used children’s store (where they sell used things for children, not actual used children). I had plans to get some white clothes, a white hoodie if possible, to which I would affix black spots, a tail, and some ears.
As it happened, the store had a rack of Halloween costumes. Which were additionally marked down. And there was a dalmatian costume. In Theo’s size. For $4.00. Suddenly, the whole home-made costume idea seemed like it would be a big ordeal.
Apparently, though, I still had a hankering for assembling a Halloween costume, because I decided to put together a costume for myself. I would be the fire to go along with the theme. I wore a red shirt layered over an orange shirt, along with an orange and red swirly-patterned shawl that I happened to have picked up for 1 euro at a Sevilla flea market. I fashioned a hat out of fleece left over from Theo’s carrot costume from last year, and attached flames of red and orange tissue paper to it with staples. (I was in a hurry. I made the hat this afternoon while Theo napped.)
I was quite pleased with the end result, especially considering that I bought nothing new to make my costume.
Of course, wearing this hat around our neighborhood reminded me of something: the fact that I have no dignity.
John, on the other hand, has some. He totally ignored my suggestion of a costume for him. Because you know what would have gone really well with both the firefighter and the dog costumes? A fire hydrant.
I couldn’t resist entering the Greeblepix contest once more. This is a photo of Phoebe from back in August.
collecting tokens 