Apple Highway

It was a lovely fall weekend in Atlanta with true Indian summer weather making it perfect for a drive into the North Georgia mountains and on to the Apple Highway to buy fresh picked apples straight from the orchards, fresh pressed cider and my honey's favorite...cider donuts.

The leaves are just now bursting with color and we saw splashes of it as we drove into the mountains.

Sunlight through the windshield.

Lake along the highway and just above Dahlonega, GA.

 Large outcroppings of granite signals cliffs are just around the turn.

Ah, I remember these cliffs.  Their were soldiers from Camp Frank DeMerrill (US Army Ranger training camp) practicing rappelling moves and it brought  back memories of my first rappel.  It was on these very cliffs (no more then about 100 feet) that I first learned how to wrap a swiss seat with a rope and then "on belay" and rappel...year - 1974.  Good times.

Nope, that's not family members walking across a meadow.  LOL.  Just a friendly flock of wild turkey's going for a walk.

After a lovely 3 hour drive, we are driving along the apple highway.  Approximately 12 family apple orchards both large and small were open to the public for apple picking, apple tasting, cider pressing and everyone's favorite...fried apple pies and cider donuts.  We purchased several varieties which included Rome Beauties, Cameo, Fuji and a new variety that we had never tasted before...Arkansas Black.  Fell in love the Arkansas Black, a crisp, mildly sweet with a blush of tartness apple with a dark, merlot to black skin.  This is a great eating apple and I'm going to make a simple apple crisp with some of them as well.  Will post that recipe and pics later this week.

Sunday, brought in a few items to the booths at Queen of Hearts.

Nice, Art Deco wool blanket.  The definitive blanket found on American beds throughout the 1930-40s.

Pretty Art Deco bullet boudoir lamp.  This one has a lovely hobnail effect which spreads beads of light throughout the room.

I don't come across true, vintage Halloween items very often as they are highly sought after and usually cost prohibitive for me to purchase.  I lucked out with this great 1940s Halloween noise maker with marvelous lithographs on it.

How cool and yet creepy is this Japanese smoker?  Very popular in the 1930s-50s, the cigarette is placed in the mouth of the smoker and smoke rises out of the ears.  This is one of 7 in a musical series.

I love these yo-yo quilts. 

This is a pretty, vintage table runner from the 1950s.

And finally...had a pair of great wooden shoe lasts that I shoved an autumn pick in and tied up with a ribbon.   These are always fun to decorate for the holidays.  I like the way these turned out.

The other shoe last with a different fall pick.  These make such interesting, autumn decorations.  Hope everyone is enjoying the rest of October.  So hard to believe that the month is nearly over and we will be turning the clocks back on November 6th.  Have a great week. Sea Witch