It's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote a blog post. My lack of posting has been mostly due to the fact that I've been spending most of my time working: much studying, attending rehearsals, researching in the library and preparing to conduct for seminar. We have managed to sneak in some fun in the last couple of weeks and we've even managed to do some free things.
Last weekend Kaia and I went to Allerton Park. It's a large piece of land owned by the University of Illinois, donated by wealthy Chicagoan Robert Allerton, about 20 miles west of Champaign. He gave his estate to the University in 1946 when he decided to move to Hawaii. It's a beautiful place to visit. There are acres and acres of gardens; miles of hiking trails through woods, pastures, and along the Sangamon River; and some historic buildings. You can even get married there if you want - and if you have lots of money. Our visit was a tad on the cool side - temperatures were in the 50s and it was overcast and windy. That still didn't stop us from having a picnic after our hike though. Best of all it was free!
This weekend we went to the Curtis Orchard in southwest Champaign. Since fall is in the air we're beginning to get the craving for apples. This is typically the time of year when Kaia makes and cans several gallons of applesauce for us to enjoy throughout the winter. We also usually make pies, crisps, and apple rings as well. Since we are broke, and also since we gave up all of our storage space and our kitchen, we are operating on a much more limited basis. With this in mind we visited the orchard, with pastoral thoughts in our minds about the countryside, the quiet, the crisp air, and the solitude of strolling up and down rows and rows of apple tress in the filtered light of autumn. We were in for a slightly rude awakening when we arrived to find heavy traffic in the parking lot, crowded conditions in the store, crabby parents yelling at tired children, and no solitude whatsoever. It's okay we still managed to score some Cortland apples. Plus we got a free cider slush when we showed them our I-Cards. Being a student may mean crushing debt and putting your life on hold for a few years, but there are some benefits!
Tonight's game plan is to make apple pie, applesauce, and dehydrate some apple rings. Tomorrow I'm going to get serious about a paper that I'm researching and try to tackle Charles Ives. I know I will study better if I have plenty of apple-based products to eat.
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