Anna Novak and her youngest daughter Lola are a beloved Internet duo. We loved living through their photos so much, that we had to ask them to capture one full summer day for us to share with our readers. This is how we begin:
Since Zoe (older daughter) is in school full-time and Matt (husband) works, we get a lot of time together just the two of us. Today, we woke up and ate crepes and talked about what we needed to do. This year, I decided that I was going to grow my house plant collection and really learn how to care for them. This would mean regular trips to our favorite family-run garden center, The Generals in Warwick, NY. Generals is a no-frills place with a huge selection; we have collected all of our plants from here over the years and the most beautiful rose bushes for our garden. Lola likes it better than the 'fancy' places, because that means she can roam and run. They also have a great little table set up for the little ones to dig, plant, and play. Sometimes, when the weather gets colder, we go to Generals just to hang out in the greenhouse and pretend it's summer forever.
After we got our soil from Generals we headed over to Ochs Orchard, our local pick-your-own farm for some cherries. We visit this place all year-round for apples, berries, and peaches; it's amazing and it's a great place to picnic with my girls. You can even hike up to the top for a view of the entire valley. Matt and I always get a kick out of this place, because it's not exactly family friendly. It's the type of place you could tell was a little reluctant to become a pick-your-own with all the rustic farm equipment piled on top of pickup-trucks, but that's what makes us love it. It has the character of a working farm, and you are left alone to explore. Lola and I were the only ones on the farm that day, and the cherries were perfect. Still, I think Lola's favorite part was chasing around a sweet kitty that she named 'farm-cat.'
On the way home, we made a quick stop to the ice cream shop. Lola and I, together, have probably eaten 982 ice cream cones this summer, and Pennings Orchard is one of our favorites for a quick cone on the go.
When we got home, we went down to the reservoir for an evening hike. We live on watershed property, so we have accesses to this beautiful untouched space and it has become a place for us to get some quiet in our life. This was early enough in the summer when the daisies were still blooming and fresh; so we picked a bunch along with some other wild pretties, sat by the water and made our flower crowns.