Apple picking

We went upstate to Warwick's Masker Orchards to pick apples. In season were: Red delicious, Macintosh, Empire, and Jonagolds. Although the day was drizzly, mushy, and chilly, it wasn't anything some hot apple cider and apple cider donuts couldn't fix. Apple-picking and orchard-roaming were free, but a half-bag of apples cost like 12 bucks, which translates to about a dollar an apple---definitely a money maker for the orchards, whose apples were so abundant that whatever wasn't picked would just make for great compost.

The little town of Warwick, at dusk in a misty drizzle, made me long for a sleeping suburbia. Despite all of the possible contained chaos little towns like that bring, there was still something irresistible and soothing about the wood-paneled houses, their colonial blue paint, and streets dotted with antique stores and colorful crooked mailboxes.

I've always wanted one of those mailboxes of my own...