Pickin' and Pluckin'

m got to wear her all-weather ski gear that she got for her ski trip last year.

This is the third year in a row we've picked and plucked the same ol' apple tree up in Nagano with m's grandparents, which means it is now officially an autumn ritual. (We stay at their beautiful house in Hotaka and eat big breakfasts and stare at the fire in the wood stove, since it's already a necessity here.) Unlike the last two years, though, when the weather has just been spectacular, the weather was wet and drizzly, though it did let up enough for us to do a very quick job of harvesting the apples. m's grandparents have already done the hard work over the summer, pruning the buds--they remove 9 flowers for each one they leave--so that the remainder will get the full sun and grow plump and red.

It doesn't seem like much of a tree, but it sure knows how to produce apples. It's also at a very handy height.

We got all the apples in the cars just ahead of a downpour and then made it to a ramen shop for some spicy noodles to warm us up. When we got back to the house, we had to dry all the apples to keep them from going bad, so we wiped them down and spread them out. We'd never actually counted them before so m's grandad did the laborious chore while we bet on the outcome. 447 pieces of fruit from one tree, not even counting the ones damaged by the birds and insects etc. How do you like them apples?

The next day we headed back to Tokyo, loaded down with boxes of apples. As we crossed the ridge overlooking Lake Suwa the skies started to clear.

By the time, we hit Kofu, it had turned into a beautiful day, with the snowy Southern Alps peaking out through the clouds.

I prefer the sea for long-term viewing, but these trips to Nagano are always cool. Matsumoto, which is just next door, is the first place I lived after coming to Japan, and the autumn smells--burning rice fields, the forests--really jogs the memory banks.