Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling,

Give me juicy autumnal fruit ripe and red from the orchard,

Give me a field where the unmowed grass grows…

– excerpt from Walt Whitman’s Give Me the Splendid Silent SunOur family made its annual trip to the orchard in Wisconsin where we have picked apples and pumpkins for the last nine years.   We couldn’t have custom ordered a more magnificent day for taking a hay ride, gathering apples, and enjoying hot cider and doughnuts.  Ida Reds, Macouns, Granny Smiths, Cortlands, and Jonathans now sit in two overflowing half-bushels on my kitchen counter.  I can’t wait for the first crisp to come out of the oven, filling our house with the scent of warm apples and cinnamon!