Indian Summer in Center Illinois

Some days, it is impossible to get out of doors despite the warm sunshine that has flooded September day after September day. So when I was given a random Thursday afternoon off, it took little persuasion to head out to the apple orchards!

Not the Garden of Eden, just beautiful Central Illinois. (Ok, you were not about to make that mistake.)

We picked about two bushels - and though an early summer coldspell has made this a bad apple year, I still came home with more varieties than I have ever used before. Straightaway about 20 became applesauce which I enjoyed while on call this weekend. Less than 8 hours between the tree and the pot isn't bad timing!

Fellow orchard lovers, Jen and Laurel... and baby Anna ("I got mom!") with apples in tow. Thank goodness for red wagons!

So warm in the sun!

Hiking between orchards... We had to do it twice. Afterall, the first time you don't know what is ahead and have saved all this room in your wagon - which has to be filled by a second round!

Anna's first apple: Hmmmm.... Doesn't look like a banana!

...Let Autumn bold,

With universal tinge of sober gold,

Be all about me when I make an end.

And now, at once, adventuresome, I send

My herald thought into the wilderness:

There let its trumpet blow, and quickly dress

My uncertain path with green, that I may speed

Easily onward through flower and weed...

(Keats Endymion, Bk 1)

Status Post Caffe au Latte

There is nothing like a good cup of coffee to make a morning go better, provided it is properly enjoyed - that is, well made and preferably entertained sitting down. Four years and three months into medical training, I know the benefits of a dose of liquid alertness while on foot. But that only moves one's mental status from hopeless to surviveable. A GOOD cup of coffee is like the counterpart to a good glass of wine. It improves mood, encourages lively conversation and brightens perspectives all around.

Case in point: At 5:30 this morning I was dozing, semifrozen, in a recliner in the physician's lounge, when I became aware that the voices my fellow nightfloat residents had moved out of the room, followed by the distinct sound of a coffee grinder. Who grinds their own coffee while on an overnight shift at the hospital? One of my fellow interns, a true coffee enthusiast who came prepared with grinder, excellent coffee roasted locally and a French press. I rapidly made my appearance. Minutes later, the three of us were around the kitchen table, suddenly normalized humans who could speak in full sentences about things other than potassium levels and blood pressure. Remarkable.

So remarkable in fact that an attending physician walking in an hour later, greeted with the distinctively fresh fragrance of our indulgence came to a full stop - "What is this?!?" (Sorry... we didn't save any!) So much for seniority. He had to make do with the machine in the corner brewing some distant cousin to what we had in hand. Nonetheless, much entertained by our zeal for good coffee, he joined us and even provided a curbside consultation.

So as I said, there's nothing like a good cup of coffee.... From the hospital to the interstate excursions, here are some snapshots and anecdotes from the ramblings of me, my cup of coffee and my camera.