APPLE BUTTER MAKING ON THE FIRST DAY OF FALL

I just wanted to snuggle deeper under the warm covers this morning as the first really fall feeling morning greeted me.  It wasn't as cold as the predictions but 52 is sure  different than the mid 60's I've been waking up to.
After chores and breakfast I decided to get my apple butter started.  I washed and peeled enough of the old time "Hoover" apples from my friend at market to fill 2 crock pots with apple slices. I added just a little water to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pots and turned them on low.
These apples are really nice tasting apples. I was expecting a tart apple but these taste really good so I saved a bowl full for the table to be snacks for us.

I went into the lower pastures for my morning walk. The sun was shining brightly as Annie and I made our way along the banks of Clear Creek which borders the pasture.
The sun seemed to dance off the waves of the rushing waters.

The water must have been cool along with the temperatures as Annie never got more than knee deep in the water and only went in a couple times.

These yellow daisies created pretty splashes of color along the banks.

There are splashes of pretty colored flowers all around the pasture.
These Purple Asters and  white Daisies were dancing along in the cool breeze this morning.

There is a good supply of Poke berries for the birds to feast on this fall.

As I walked I couldn't help but notice this line of purple Heart Heal that is growing in what seems to be a line down through the pasture.

 Both ways you look it is a pronounced line.

This is where my dad built a wooden culvert down through the bottoms to drain an under ground spring that continued to pump water into the pasture and kept a muddy spot.  He built this culvert in the mid to late 1950's before I was old enough to remember. I only remember hearing him talk about it.  It was built to carry the spring water into the farm pond which is still the same pond we have. I would imagine the wooden culvert has long since collapsed and the spring is now on my brother's part of the bottom pastures so that is why we have a hard time keeping water in the pond now.  It just amazes me and makes me wonder why the ground on top of this old culvert appears to support different plants than just the grasses of the pasture.
I came back to the house to get the house work done for the day.
I finished at 3:00 and headed outside to let the floors dry while I soaked up some sunshine, only to discover the sun was now totally covered by clouds and a cool breeze made it uncomfortable to be out there in the low 60's temp.
Hubbie came in from work and I put some supper in the oven.  We bought some "white" sweet potatoes yesterday and I put a couple those in the oven to see what they were like along with a turkey breast tenderloin. The potatoes were very good,although they don't taste like a regular sweet potato.
After chores and supper I seasoned the apples in the pots and removed the lids. To my surprise I didn't need very much sugar at all and the apples were very thick.

After a couple more hours I put the butter in jars and processed it for 10 minutes.  This may be the best apple butter I have ever made. There was 8 pint jars of it, 7 for the cupboard and 1 for the fridg.
Hoover apples are a good butter making apple for sure.

These apples were developed by a man named Hoover from Edisto, SC around 1850.  It is an old variety that folks are coming back to, one reason is that it is a late bloomer thus hardly ever gets killed in the late freezes we have in spring.
It has been a nice evening,the first day of Autumn has been a really fall feeling day with breezy, clouds and mid 60's temperatures. As I write this tonight at 11:00 it is already 55 degrees outside headed for the mid 40's overnight. 
I guess you could say that fall arrived like a lamb, wonder how it will leave ??
Grateful for the blessings God sent my way today.
Good Night and God Bless.