Autumn means apple season, so today the girls and I took a little afternoon trip to the orchard.

This was our first visit to this particular orchard, and despite having a map and instructions for where to find which specific apple varieties, we kept heading off in the wrong direction and then needing to turn around and head off in the right direction. We never truly got lost in the woods. And certainly when the woods look this astonishing, nobody complains.

Eventually we found the Sweet 16 apples in a far-off row in the back of the orchard. They were a little past their prime, so our soon-to-be-sweet-16 just picked one to pose with.

She’s had a sweet tooth for apples for at least 15 years now.

Checking that off the list, we headed off toward the front of the orchard to find some apples for baking pies and dumplings.

My heart is like a singing bird

Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit.

Christina Rossetti