I suppose last weekend was it. We drove. We looked. We searched. We made due with what was to be found.The foliage just never got here this year, as has been the case for quite some time, which I did grumble about before.
Finding apples and pumpkins was a plus, it helped to fill in the gaps left by the lack of that precise mix of water, temperature, warmth and chilliness, that can force the stunning show it sometimes does.
For good measure, and with really no thought given
to the approach of Halloween, we stopped and walked a small graveyard, lingering in imagination at the lives long ago begun and ended by some of the original settlers in this particular piece of Luzerne County, very near the Wyoming County line. Some of the dead here have been such since before the Civil War.The surname upon most markers is Dymond, a familiar name to many of us. Dymond's strawberries, blueberries, and hayrides bring an annual trip to the country for a lot of folks in the Wyoming Valley. Right down the road from Dymond's farm is Brace's Orchards. Brace is likewise a name to be found on some markers in this small family cemetery. Those are baskets of Brace's apples up there. Spectacular.
This place, before I forget, is Dymond Hollow. If you're ever of a mind to make the trip, it's not far from Fitch's Corners, on Creamery Road. You'll know you're there when you spot the Dymond Hollow United Methodist Church, a pretty little place with a very active congregation, I'm told.
Personally, I'd like to offer thanks to the deity that places like these still exist and that folks still live nearby and gather for chicken and biscuit suppers in small country churches.
I had to have said this before, but America isn't New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. America is everything else in-between.
I like living in-between.
