Fall Road Trip #1

Last Saturday we took a little drive up north to check out the fall colors. I decided we should go north instead of south for a couple of reasons. The leaves in Indianapolis aren’t quite at their peak yet, so I thought that the farther north we went the more color there would be. I’m sure its beautiful down south, but I also thought there would be more people down there this weekend. There’s a big game at IU and the covered bridge festival is still going on in Parke County. So, north we went. The forecast called for some rain, but when we hit the road at 8:30, it was shaping up to be a nice day.

Lately, I’ve had this obsession with waterfalls, ever since our trip to North Carolina last year where we chased waterfalls all over western North Carolina. I knew there had to be waterfalls closer to home I could photograph, so I set out to find some. There are the ones every knows about; Clifty Falls, Cataract Falls, the falls at McCormick’s Creek, which are all south. But I also found one I didn't know about up north in Logansport (of all places) at a little county park called France Park. Eric and I have been to France Park and I didn’t remember a waterfall…in fact, neither of us really remember France Park at all. I do remember we went there because they have a nice mountain bike trail and it was when we first got our bikes. Even after we got there it really didn’t look familiar except for the beach area. It’s at a very scenic old rock quarry in the park.

There are a couple of small lakes/ponds in the park and Eric couldn’t resist getting his fishing pole wet.

While he was doing that I wandered around with my camera and shot some nice fall scenes. The colors weren’t quite what I expected, but it was pretty all the same.

After a short hike we were ready for lunch. We left the park and ate lunch in Logansport then drove over to Lake Mississinewa, which is a State Recreation Area. At least we tried to find it. We drove and drove and after several wrong turns and a detour, we finally did find the water at a couple of dead end streets. Strange, we never could find the main entrance to the park. Eric did a little fishing here too and caught a couple of small, small mouth bass. It was starting to get cloudy but the sun shining through the clouds was very pretty.

On the way home, down country roads, past farm after farm, the sun was streaming beautifully down through the clouds turning the landscape a glowing orange.

One last picture from the ride home.

All in all a very nice day!! Next weekend…we head south.

**to see more photos from this Road Trip, click http://photobucket.com/albums/v251/LupineDream/Autumn%20Color/

Harvest Time!

Actually harvest time is anytime in our garden; not just in the autumn. We generally have a good offering of our favorite veggies all summer long, though each summer is different depending, of course, on the weather. This year was very hot and dry, so overall the garden didn’t do as well as some other years, including tomatoes which are usually our biggest and best producing plants. We usually have 9-12 plants. I can tomato sauce every year, usually in August, to use over the winter for chili and spaghetti. This year because of circumstances beyond our control, we didn’t can until the middle of September and only put up 6 quarts. That makes me sad, but we’ll have to make it stretch somehow. Sometimes I can salsa, but this year I just made several batches of fresh salsa throughout the summer.

Onions did really well this year too; probably our best year yet.

Peppers did pretty good this year too, though not a bumper crop. We had some nice sweet red bells and red banana peppers, and (as you saw earlier) some huge jalapenos.

Cucumbers were a bomb; zucchini did well (they usually do), so we enjoyed many loaves of zucchini bread, courtesy of my Mom.

Herbs didn’t do that well. The oregano never came up; basil did okay, but the cilantro, as usual, was all out of sync with the tomatoes. (I grow cilantro to use in salsa). I planted a second batch that’s just now ready. Fortunately we still have some tomatoes so that means more fresh salsa this fall.

Potatoes didn't do all that well, but we'll have enough for the winter for us and my folks. Once we started digging the potatoe hills we realized that we had a few volunteer red potatoes. A nice surprise.

That's it for this year's garden. It's sad to see it go, but I know it has to be. We'll let the earth rest (and so will we) and we'll be ready to do it again in the spring.