apple-picking at mt. tomah

mt. tomah is an hour away northwest of parramatta within the blue mountains region. it was sunday and at 20°C, it was a lovely day to pick apples. bogusia (or "bo" for short) and monica (bo's friend) joined us for this trip. this is the first time in two years of staying together with bo that we shared an outdoor activity. we are always busy making different plans for the weekend - i.e. our plan is usually to stay home and  bo's is always to mountain-climb.

we reached pine crest orchard at 10am.we are amongst the early birds and we took pride of having had a bit of chit-chat with the lady manning the the front shop of the farm.

the orchard has a wider range of apples apart from the typical kinds we see in the grocery shop. normally, supermarkets prefer produce that they can sell all year round. hence, some variations are not seen in the market. some of them were really worth trying especially while they are still in season.

jonathan, jonagold and quince are some of the apples that are rarely sold in supermarkets

we tried some of the apples we've never had before:

golden delicious. very juicy and sweet.

jonagold. a breed between jonathon and golden delicious. sweet, yet not as juicy as golden delicious.

quince. with velvety and fibrous skin, slightly sour with a hint of lemon.

in my water: substituting lemon for quince

kaela enjoyed walking around the rough terrain than picking apples. she touched every kind of surface there was. at the end of apple picking, she knew two new vocabularies - butterfly and duck. truly, first hand experience is best when teaching children.

taking a picture with an apple tree

 tatay's vision of his orchard paradise came to life in this photo!

 boohh! scaring you with a scarecrow

with kaela's ciocia bo and ciocia monica

picture before leaving pine crest.

we spent our lunch at blue mountains botanic garden along with our cfc family. it was a pleasant afternoon to devour four different home-cooked adobo (we didn't coordinate obviously who would bring what), sinigang and roasted pork. i guess my stomach stretched out like i'm pregnant after that lunch.

cfc family

it was a relief taking a walk around the park after what seemed to be like a prisoner's last meal. the warm surrounding and the windy afternoon was enticing anyone to stop and have a siesta but of course, everyone's looking forward to driving home and have a rest before starting the week the following day.

kaela with ciocia bo

we enjoyed our day-trip activity. we wish to have more of this event from time to time. totally a good day to tip the scale to living a normal life.