It doesn’t really FEEL like fall (yet), but I have high hopes that soon the air will turn crisp and cool, and my favorite season will be underway!
Fall… it just does something to me! I’m not sure why, but cool, overcast days in fall make me happier than any other time of the year. Perhaps it’s the fact that everyone starts cocooning in just a bit, and all the sounds, smells, and warmth of home take on a bigger meaning. It’s one thing to come inside on a hot summer afternoon and collapse on the couch, but it’s another thing completely to be coming down the road after a brisk walk outside, and the lights of the houses in the neighborhood have that welcoming glow, and you come in to the warmth and smells of home.
THAT’S a little bit of Heaven on earth.
(my goodness… don’t this sound like a Thomas Kincaide painting?)
So, in honor of the change of seasons, we put up all the fall decorations, and then pulled out a few bags of apples and made homemade apple butter! I had made applesauce many times in the past, but I had never tried making apple butter. This recipe can either be cooked overnight in the crockpot or in about an hour and a half on the stove. Either way, the results were amazing and my kids and I are looking forward to tomorrow’s breakfast — homemade biscuits, apple butter, and hot tea! (can’t get rid of the “New England” in me no matter how long I’ve been down here!)
In other news…
You may remember this post just a little bit ago when I talked about reading my great-grandmother’s diary. Well, it turns out that it caused both my husband and me to start thinking more about history — family history and local history.
We were told when we moved into our home 12 years ago that the land had once been a cotton plantation. We were curious, but never went anywhere with it… until now. We’ve been digging through old records and maps, trying to figure out who owned what and whose plantation this once was. We’ve had an awful lot of fun amateur sleuthing, and hopefully someday I’ll be able to go to the courthouse and find out officially what the answer is.
In the meantime, we’ve been exploring all the amazing bits of history here in our little corner of the world. I’m thrilled because for the first time, names, places, plantations, graveyards, etc are all starting to come together to tell a story that my kids are finding fascinating. I wish I could share some of it here but, wanting to remain fairly anonymous, I can’t really broadcast where we are, other than to say that upstate South Carolina has some amazing stories to tell!
Thanks for the recipe link, I LOVE apple butter! Fall is definitely my favorite season… changing colors, falling leaves, warm spices and football! (Go Hokies!)
I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! (we had it for breakfast this morning) Next time, however, I’m going to put in far less sugar than the recipe calls for. Brown sugar AND honey was a too much for me, although the kids thought it was great.
(can’t cheer for the Hokies, though… you beat us in women’s soccer! *grin*)
That does sound like a lot of sugar… I’ll keep that in mind. I’m hoping to borrow my mom’s pressure cooker and can some of it!
Hee hee, I won’t hold it against you! Clemson was my second choice for architecture school and I have family near there.