Wea Creek Apples

Today we had our big annual trip to a local orchard. This year we visited a new orchard just opened, Wea Creek Orchard. Fortunately for us it it’s now only a short trip (the orchard we had previously visited was a 35 min drive but has since closed).

Turns out Lynne knows Perry the owner, he works at Purdue and Lynne has met him a few times. He gave us all a tractor and trailer ride out through the apple, pear and peach orchards, through a few pumpkin patches (we picked three) and on a walking tour of the bee hive area.

We got lots of apples, jam and honey, nothing like a freshly picked apple in autumn. Anja ate three and Connor even gnawed his way through one. Lynne then made a delicious Apple Custard Pie for dessert….Yum!!

Guinness Black Lager

I tried a new beer out tonight. Saw a Guinness Black Lager in the shop and thought why not give it a try. Black lager is already a style of its own; it’s called Schwarzbier, so Guinness has not come up with something new here. I’ve actually triad a couple of different schwarzbiers over the years, both from bottles here is the US but also on draught when I have visited Germany. Unfortunately Guinness did not make a beer to match some of the great German versions.

This beer was just OK. I thought it tasted well enough but nothing special.  It certainly had that classic lager crispness with a slight bitterness but the beer was dominated by the roasted barley malt (presumably the same malt used by Guinness to make their signature Dry Irish Stout). I may buy it again, we’ll see. It received a rather poor rating on both Beer Advocate and Rate Beer. 

Lynne Has Been Sick

We’ve been keeping our heads down for the last week, Lynne has been sick. She had quite a fever all last week, sometimes well over 100F. Two visits to the doctor throughout the week didn’t help much; a viral infection is/was the likely culprit. As of today she is feeling a little better but it will most likely take most of the week for her to return to normal. And of course as most people know, when the Mummy is sick the whole household is all out of whack (a testament to how much they do for everybody).

Shown below are a few recent photos of the kids. Got a cute one of Connor in his little chair, which he loves, and another of him playing dress-up with the girls, he loves that too!!

Labor Day Weekend .....Report

We have had one very busy Labor day Weekend. 
At the outset we didn't really have many plans but we certainly filled our time as the weekend progressed. Started at home with some gardening, weeding, and harvesting on Saturday morning along with the usual weekend chores.  It was a cool pristine morning and all five of us were out there in our work clothes getting stuck into weeds with rakes, spades and forks. The kids absolutely loved it, it's amazing how excited you can get kids about something if you really make them part of the activity.  To hear Isabel and Anja tell how hard they worked later you'd swear we had them in a forced labor camp.

Steef and Ginette then came over to play, eat, drink and have fun on Saturday afternoon/evening. They brought this great Greek Yogurt dessert, a huge bowl, most of which was consumed before they left (sorry I got no picture). Connor took a particular liking to it as you'll see from the photo below.

On Sunday, after a relaxing morning of reading, we visited with Randy and Lorraine to catch up on how there're doing and dinner. We ended up staying for a bonfire which the kids were thrilled with. Not sure exactly if they love roasted marshmellows or the bonfire more. There was a beautiful sunset in the background right as the bonfire was ready for roasting action.

Today then, Labor Day, Lisa and Brad hosted us for their typical great spread of food and good company.  Weather was great, we got caught up on other old friends, picked some fresh veggies from Lisa's garden, kids played in the creek and generally relaxed and enjoyed the day. 

We'll all sleep well tonight. Hope you all had a great holiday weekend and a good week. A sampling of the weekend's photos are shown below.

Labor Day Weekend

The 1^st September is here and although it’s over 94F (36C) outside, there are a few signs that summer is coming to an end. The mornings are starting to get a little darker and a little more brisk, Anja and Isabel are back to school and of course, Labor Day, the traditional US celebration to end Summer is this coming weekend. Last big grilling day of the year.

Anja has been a little ill this last week, nothing really bad, if you don’t count vomiting as a major illness. She has missed three days of school already. Isabel is perfectly healthy and injury free, which is always welcome. Connor is his normal destructive self.

Lynne is also well, albeit busy at work. This semester she is also back to school since she is taking two classes. It’s a Purdue initiative to allow faculty time off from administration duties to allow study in a second discipline. I think she's enjoying it.

My marathon training is at a peak at the moment, running about 45 miles a week. I’m still injury free and on-track for Chicago, keep your fingers crossed. Its about 5 week away.

Shown below are a few photos of the kids from this last month but also two that my Mum sent over from a recent wedding they attended. She is shown pictured with my uncle Michael (her brother) and aunt Cepta and in the other with Paul and Gertie, our neighbors in Ireland.

Hope you all have a great Labor Day.