Monday, January 12, 2015

Planning

It's 2015, the holidays proved to be stressful, hectic and wonderful all at the same time.  Got through the New Year with a quiet dinner at one of my new favorite italian restaurants, Girasole, in The Plains. I was hoping to catch Robert Duvall as he lives in the area but no such luck. Still, the seafood ravioli was more than worth braving the cold!

Since blogging has taken a back seat, I figured I've already broken the rules so I'm posting pictures I took several months ago, at one of the future venues of one of the weddings I am planning, several months in the future! As anyone who has known me for any amount of time can tell you, I've never been really good at rules anyway.

I have a few more events coming up this year sooner than this one, but this was my first time visiting this winery and it was a bitterly cold fall day that I caught just before the afternoon light faded. I was pretty impressed with the scenery so I decided to snap a few pictures, mainly for preplanning reference but they turned out to be somewhat magical. Check it out!









Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Apple Picking



I love living in northern Virginia because the proximity to DC and Baltimore is close enough for a day trip. I also love that being out in the country affords us a nice 30-45 minute drive to incredible farmers markets, fall festivals, wineries and orchards with pick your own fruits and veggies.

Gurgle came in on Friday and we decided to do an apple picking trip. I really feel like we've started a tradition that must be repeated next year as well and will probably include some baking of apple pies, dumplings, crisps or whatever else strikes us.

Unfortunately this year Shaun and I had box seats to the longest MLB playoff game in history so we didn't get to bake together but I think next season we will start early and do all manners of berries as well as peaches in the late summer.

I didn't bring Bear and mistakenly thought it would be muddy after the rain we had the day before but it turned out to be the most gorgeous day for being up on a mountainside climbing around in trees picking fruit.  Next year I shall bring Bear as well as a picnic because it seems they are the only 2 things that could've made this day any dreamier!








I was going to feed this moo cow an apple, but then I read online that it could possibly give her bloat and make her very sick or die. I definitely didn't want to kill the poor fluffy thing so I apologized and told her she was still on a grass diet for now. 


she wasn't pleased about her lack of dessert.


I pretty quickly realized that climbing apple trees was one of my new favorite activities. Apple trees also being my new official favorite tree! 


gorgeous blue skies for miles and the crispest, sweetest apples ever. 



not to mention some sweet company!
















Definitely one of the loveliest of days. In fact, I had to apologize for repeatedly saying "gosh this is such a perfect day!". But really, it was. With all of this anticipation for fall, after seeing the spent peach trees, I can't wait until next summer for picnicking under the trees with some ripe, juicy peach and a Gurgle and a Bear.