Apple Pieces

Apple season looms. I keep thinking about getting back to apple cake making and wondering if today will be the day that it sounds like a good idea. So far, no dice really. It is still warm and the sun is (as Suess says) "still sunny" so the oven has mostly stayed off and I haven't even felt inspired enough about the topic to dig through my recipes for untried options. No, not even A's incredibly kind aunt soliciting my best contender yet encouraged me to get out my binder and have a look-see. Am a genuine inspiration swamp about it. (So sorry Aunt A!!! I promise I'll get that recipe to you soonish!)

I do think about it though and still believe in the idea heartily. The best apple cake recipe on earth has to be found. It has to be a classic cake...it has to be soft and has to be thick with apples and spices and it must, must, must be moist and delicious.

Going home, I realized that part of why the apple bug is so deep in me is because I without a doubt come from a land of apple paradise. There are apple trees, wild, abandoned,  forgotten, thriving, loaded, glowing apple trees on almost every tract of untended land...most houses seem to have an apple tree.

One of my paintings, "Four Apple Glow"

Plato represents to us that in the old days the apple was a symbol of love and tossing one to a person you fancied was a symbolically deep offer of affection.

"I throw the apple at you, and if you are willing to love me, take it and share your girlhood with me; but if your thoughts are what I pray they are not, even then take it, and consider how short-lived is beauty."

—Plato, Epigram VII^[21]

I had to have an apple tree at our new house, it is a deeply connected home-piece for me. Apple trees mean peace, familiarity and utility and even on some level a kind of whimsical mystery. I know Eve didn't really eat an apple but I think about it anyhow, and Avalon, the land of Arthur had nothing to do with apples, the name just means "apple land" but it somehow still feels important...I even think about the old name for the tomato "love apple" when I find myself in an orchard and smile to myself thinking that it sounds right.I think it is not for without reason that I feel really home now that I have made my own sauce and feel that if I need to have a good cry, a mug of cider is one of the best companions. Aphrodite and I like our apples.

Autumn Magic

We went off to pick some pumpkins....

And we found....

....just the perfect collection.

There were hay rides and...

...blue skies and gold leaves everywhere we looked.

I picked some Sweet Annie for drying in a bundle in the kitchen. Smell so good!

Nib just looked up the entire time. So much pretty foliage overhead!

There were a few leaf fights.

  

Curiously the leaves on our own trees in our yard have yet to really turn or start dropping in earnest. It was kind of fun to drive out to this farm and enjoy a preview of fall leaf play. 

Some very, very happy sheep.

I love this boy.

There was a gorgeous blushing sky on the way home.

 We put the pumpkins on the front and back steps, the back door ones are for the more timid family members who are afraid of pumpkin smashers and the front step clan are the folks who are so unabashed about their celebratory fall spirit that they really believe the neighborhood and yea, the world will be good to them. The glass is half full and half empty at our house.

And this morning we baked another apple cake

I love the things they make out of Tinker Toys. So glad I picked them up at that yard sale.

Can you believe he's about to cut through is first two teeth? Such a sweet soul.

Testing the cake (which is already half gone)

 It is nice and moist. Plenty of apples, lovely sweet and shattery crust on top, but still, I dunno...I think I want it to be more spiced and a darker color. Maybe I need brown sugar in it or some whole wheat flour or something. Still searching, but feeling closer than ever.....

And my trash table is done! Well....sort of done.

 I ran out of paint before I could get the wooden edge along the top painted and the leg paint is a bit weak, but I was so anxious to use it that I think I'm just going to let it ride for a while. Its living in the sunroom, giving a boost to several houseplants who couldn't reach the light well. I love the silvery metallic top and have to admit that I stole the idea of painting it a metallic silver from my sister Foxy. What can I say? She has good taste! I am considering getting some kind of decorative wooden feet at Home Depot to screw in and raise it up. Its a bit low, too high to be coffee table material, but too low for pulling a chair up.