Lovely Day!

 

I don't have a single photo from our day...I have a brand-new camera and I'll confess, aside from charging and putting in the batteries and SD card, the camera has gone back to the box.  I confess I generally save my Christmas gifts, no matter how early they are given, for Christmas.  My phone makes the most awful photos, so I don't use for general photography as a rule.  Off subject all this talk of cameras, except that I wish I'd had the new camera with me today.   

I don't know that I've mentioned it overmuch, but John's anxiety has increased to the point that he is very reluctant to leave home unless we are solidly in the middle of the rut we typically travel, which means we go to church and Katie's and pretty much nowhere else these days.  I've talked to him about his anxiety and how it's affecting two of us and not just himself, but he steadily refuses to take medication.  I have urged him to try the Vitamin B supplement our former doctor put me on when I was suffering with so much anxiety and panic attacks and I've noticed he's been taking it routinely this week, but will he do it next week?  There's the real question.  I sort of nagged him gently for the past week and we got out of the house.

We went on a small adventure.  One we haven't been on in nearly a year and oh it was lovely!  It's in the foothills of our state and only about forty minutes from our home.  The views are especially nice, tall rolling hills, distant mountains, lots of hardwood forests and field views.  

Apparently, they'd had more rain than we've had here, because the trees were lush, and they were the most brilliant colors.  I knew we'd made the perfect choice when we topped a hill and saw an array of hills and valleys before us with a lovely patchwork of colors.  Flame red, deep amber, old gold, orange, burgundy, evergreen, lime, yellow.  Of the forty minutes' drive at least 30 minutes of it was stunning autumn color.  

John must have enjoyed the trip because this afternoon while we were talking to Katie, he told her all about how pretty it all was.

The town we headed to has an old-fashioned courthouse square like most of the more rural counties have.  It has a thriving downtown area that encompasses about two blocks, not just the area around the courthouse square, but an additional wider block around the central block.  There are shops and bazaars and boutiques and coffee shops and diners, thrift stores and offices.  There's even a movie theatre there that shows both current and vintage films.   

We headed to a grocery a little further north of town where most of the new growth of that town has spread.  I was chasing Winesap apples today.  I didn't find any, but I did buy two Macoun (pronounced MacCowan), a Golden Delicious which is hard to find these days, and a new to me variety called Hunnyzz.  

That's all I bought, just those four apples.  I will tell anyone that apples are not my favorite fruit, but I will generally buy any new variety I see in the store and because of that I have found I do like apples.  I just don't care for Red Delicious or Granny Smith the two most common varieties.  I bought another new variety on Monday called Kissabel.  

The lady at the cash register asked if we were going to have an apple tasting party?  John said, "Well we hadn't thought about it, but that's a good idea!"  When she heard I was looking for Winesaps she suggested the two other groceries in town to try.  I told John perhaps in the future, we'd go to all three stores, but I felt I'd spent quite enough on apples this week (about $10).  

We went to a Chili's restaurant that is tucked into a quiet corner of a major shopping center for our lunch.  That restaurant is almost always a little slow during lunch hour and the staff super nice.  We enjoyed our meal very much.

And then we turned to head home with the promise of all that lovely autumn color to see on our way back all over again.  We both kept commenting on how pretty it was and how happy we were we'd made the time to go out today.  

I've promised myself two things today.  One of those promises is to go back up to that town and walk around the courthouse square and go into shops or just window shop.  I think it will feel like a proper old-fashioned shopping trip downtown.  Having grown-up on the cusp of malls being the norm, I've never known the pleasures of shopping as one used to do downtown and walk down the sidewalk.  I'm planning to do that trip in early December.  There's a huge Christmas bazaar store on one corner right across from the courthouse that would be perfect for a pre-holiday visit, I think.

The second promise is to stop being in such a rut about where I grocery shop. More and more often these days I go to the grocery alone and while I do watch for sales, often enough it's mere habit that sends me to the two stores where I typically shop.   The grocery we visited in Thomaston is a chain we don't have in our area of the state, but we really like it a lot.  There's the store in Thomaston and another in Forsyth and each of them are about 40 minutes from home.  I travel that far already to shop in Warner Robins or Perry, so why not head in a different direction every other month or so?  

When we got home today, we made coffee and then just about 4:15 we called Caleb to wish him a Happy Birthday.  He told me on Sunday, "Gramma, my birthday is this week..." and his eyes just glowed with the joy of it.  He has been through Millie, Grampa, Gramma, Isaac, Taylor, his Mama, Josh, Bella, Cody, Henry and their cousin from Bellas's side, Liam's birthdays this year and he's felt his day would never come.   He informed us that today he was not any taller, but he was smarter.  His requested birthday dinner is Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches.

It was very humbling to look back and recall how far John and I, Katie and Caleb have all grown and experienced over the past six years.  I'm so grateful for all of it!

So, there's my account of what I consider to be a very lovely autumn day!