While it may have officially become autumn just last week, here in our part of Sweden it’s felt like fall since early August. Still, we wanted to herald the new season with an outdoor weekend–and a trip to an apple orchard.
On Saturday morning we went for a walk on a new forest path, and the boys loved it. We often take them to playgrounds, and we sometimes forget how simple it is for nature to spark their imaginations. Elaborate playgrounds are great, but so are simple forest trails.
August has a knack for finding monsters in the forest, but he also always finds a stick that can keep us safe.
On Sunday we found an apple orchard about an hour away. We went to a lovely place called Äppelfabriken (the Apple Factory), where apples have been grown for over 375 years. Apple orchards and cider mills aren’t quite the same here in Sweden as they are in the US: while I wanted to find a place where we could walk around the apple trees, go on a hayride, and drink cider, here you generally find a musteri with a cafe, a farm shop, and a place to drop off your own apples to be pressed. (It’s not uncommon to have an apple tree in your yard here, and people regularly take their apples to be pressed and bottled to drink through the winter. A new life goal is to have an apple tree in my yard!).
We weren’t able to walk amongst the trees, but we did spend a small fortune to have an absolutely lovely lunch–with dessert first, of course. We all had small cups of cider (I bought a bottle of cider, or äppelmust, and four gorgeous cider glasses to bring home) before exploring the grounds a bit more and visiting a medieval church just down the road.
I’m looking forward to more gorgeous fall weekends, even as I lament that autumn will be over soon. What is your favorite part of fall? Are you going to any cider mills (to eat yummy donuts) this year? Do you have any favorite autumn rituals or recipes?
All pictures by me.
By the way, September is a great time to start a new project.
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