A proper English autumn (with lots of food pictures)

Because it's been a ridiculously gorgeous autumn around here, and because the Boxalls took pity on our glazed, post-practice expressions, last Saturday afternoon we loaded up the Boxall vehicles and went to the Perry Court Farm Apple Fayre (that's "Fair" to you folks playing at home).  What was there to see?

APPLES!

APPLE PIES!

LARGE SLICES OF YUMMY CAKE!

FRESH VEG!

AND WHATEVER THOSE THINGS ARE!  (Pears?  I've forgotten now)

And just as if to take our minds as far away from fluting as possible, we were also treated to several demonstrations of plowing techniques throughout the ages.  There were a few primitive tractors, and a bunch of noisy, smelly machines that didn't appear to be accomplishing much besides belching black smoke in the air (and giving the guys standing around drinking beer something to do).  My favorite method, however, starred these guys:

who pulled the plow behind them, stepping in sync, while the poor guy behind had to muscle the plow straight down the track and manage the reins at the same time.  It looked exhausting, but the horses were very pretty. Am glad modern life allows me to simply jog as a form of exercise.

After admiring the apples and apple pies and large slices of cake and veg and pears(?) and horses, we stopped at the picturesque village of Chilham (above). Chilham features its own castle (which we couldn't enter because it's privately owned - by a guy who lands his helicopter on the roof, apparently) and a very impressive church (below).

After Chilham, we stopped at a farm down the road that has pens of donkeys, ducks, geese, and rheas (funny looking bird that's like an emu).  They also make their own apple cider, of which we had a taste a bought a few cartons to take home with us (yum).

Thank you Boxalls for a great afternoon's distraction!

On Wednesday, the six of us decided to have a potluck dinner at our Dairy.  Since the only things to do around here on non-class days are practice and eat, we like to make eating as entertaining as possible!

Adrian and So Yun (and half of Jenny? - sorry girl!) dish up dinner in our kitchen

I'm pleased to report that each of us is an enthusiastic (and not untalented) cook, so we had a table full of very tasty items.

My plate: Jenny's salad, my butternut squash soup, roasted veg by So Yun, and Adrian's mushroom and zucchini risotto.  Bread from Wye Bakery above, and there was some lovely chicken by Ko-Yu as well, but for obvious reasons, that didn't end up on my plate.

More later, much love to everybody!
Kristin