Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Much-Belated Apple Festival Report

You know what else I never fully blogged about? Apple Festival! My goodness, what a massive oversight. Let's step into the time machine again, and return to October 5th.

It was a Friday morning, you may recall, and after a Starbucks stop I hit the road to NY once rush hour traffic had subsided. The same morning that I drove up, it turned out that my grandmother was in the hospital having a pacemaker installed, having told my aunt the night before that she felt funny (long story short, she's doing pretty well now but it's been a bumpy month for all involved). My drive up was uneventful, with some lovely foliage to see; in my experience, New York is usually behind Massachusetts, foliage-wise, but this year they were there and then some. Gorgeous!
It was late afternoon when I got to the house; I hung out with my aunt and we had dinner before going in to the hospital to visit Grandma. She was kind of out of it, but she knew who I was, and all. I brought in some of the alpaca yarn to touch, and told her about petting the baby alpaca the week before. (I also dropped the skein on the way out, but fortunately realized it before we were quite out of the building; it was in the elevator, oops. That was when I started thinking about how my purse, much as I like it, isn't as practical as I might wish; update to come.)

In the morning, we gathered ourselves together and went off to Apple Festival! There had been rain that week, and the ground was muddy here and there, but overall the weather wasn't that bad, misty more than raining; not as bad as it could be, at any rate, and we know that from experience.
We had a good time, walking the tents, shopping, eating those fabulous french fries. This little number made both of us think of my mother:
And how about this bench!
 Look at the detail!
Not that it's necessarily something I want ... but still, isn't it something?

My aunt got me great yarn for my birthday present, alpaca and alpaca from the two different vendors who have it:
 
And I got myself some lovely wool, too.
 
There was this little pot, only $5, that I found cheery and knew I wanted to bring home.
An apple potholder for Apple Festival.
My initials in these cool recycled blocks; I put them in the kitchen window.
The middle C isn't sized right for the other two, but who cares.

I wanted another corn-heat-therapy-bag, so I got this one. I didn't love any of the fabric choices, but I liked this one well enough, and after all it's what's on the inside that counts.
And for a present for my manatee-loving friend, a manatee switch-plate.
We didn't work the pie sales table as usual after all, since when my grandmother went into the hospital my aunt let them know that our schedule would not be reliable. That worked out well, as we left the Fest at lunchtime and, after swinging home to switch out boots for shoes, we went to the hospital to pick up Grandma. Can you believe, barely 24 hours after the pacemaker, they sent her home? She was so happy to be home, though a bit confused at the same time; talking to a friend on the phone about the experience, you would have thought she'd been in the hospital a week or more, instead of late Thursday to Saturday lunchtime. (Physically, she's recovered a great deal, but she's still not what a book reviewer would call a reliable narrator.)

I had to leave after lunch on Sunday, and that was Apple Festival for another year. Next year, I want to take Friday and Monday off, which hopefully the job situation will allow. I haven't been at the same job for two Apple Festivals in a row in the last five years! I hope I break that streak now. My longest streak in the last decade is three years, and that was Apple Festivals 2005-2007. Time for a new record!

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