yummy apples and biting dogs

Apple picking on a sunny October Sunday

We went apple picking with another family yesterday. The orchard is in a lovely little bit of Belgium, for a change. It's pretty much all flat and not a particularly interesting landscape around here but the little country road we took to get to this orchard took us through some rolling farmland with small fields and little patches of woodland and past some beautiful little farmhouses and cottages.

 The apples were all delicious and after taste testing a few we headed off to look for the rows of Jonagold, Cox, Winter Banana and something else beginning with M. It doesn't take long to fill a box with lots of helping hands, even if Tadhg was taking bites out of most of the ones he picked :)

Tadhg has a bare bum below because he peed and we hadn't got to the car yet to put dry trousers on him. He is normally dressed properly! Although saying that, as I sit writing this he is playing in the garden, naked, on October 24th. I just looked up the temperature and it says it's only 12C but it feels much warmer. He stripped off as soon as he came in from school and went straight out and isn't at all bothered that it's chilly- takes after his dad for sure!

weighing and paying and adding more

Just after I took the photo above, Tadhg was bitten on the arm by the farm dog when he got too close to him while he had a bone. The owner didn't seem to be bothered or apologetic but she did fetch a towel to wipe the dust off Tadhg's naked bum. Strange. Anyway, I wasn't too worried and Steve checked with the owner that the dog was fully vaccinated and healthy but we decided to go to the hospital just to get it checked out anyway. So we skipped the planned picnic and headed to our local hospital.

 

Here's a photo taken by Tadhg in the busy waiting room at the hospital. When we'd had enough of watching Top Gun in French Brendan and I went for a wander around the hospital. When we came back Tadhg had already been seen- thankfully we skipped the queue because a pediatrician was free.The doctor had a good look but said all's well. The skin was broken but it wasn't a puncture wound. We had our picnic of thermos soup, bread and boiled eggs at our kitchen table. And of course some apples. Then we had our friends over for a cup coffee and a chatter for a bit to make up for missing the picnic. Steve said he felt a bit nervous making coffee for a Turkish person! haha