It's Columbus Day in the U.S. today and, if you are among those folks who enjoy a 3-day holiday weekend. — good for you. (See below Columbus trivia.) And, for our Canadian friends and fellow bloggers, it's Thanksgiving — Happy Holiday.As for Grenville and I, this holiday weekend was perfect as far as the weather goes with cooler daytime temps. And for us (and many others) that signals Fall apple picking and pumpkin festival celebrations.
While there are quite a few apple orchards throughout NH, Sullivan Farm is the only working farm that remains just outside Nashua, NH and it has apple orchards. This 50-acre family-owned farm offers in-season produce, plants, garden accessories and offers fall apple picking in the orchards. Last week, we stopped there to do some picking and on a mid-week afternoon, no one else was out in the orchards picking that day.
The Pumpkin Festival is spread out over the historic, Milford Oval, which includes Milford Town Hall and the entire downtown area. Events included pumpkin painting, face painting, scarecrow stuffing, and a craft fair; there were also various food vendors and entertainment and free admission.
How did YOU spend your fall weekend ?
Columbus Day has been a U.S. national holiday since 1937 to commemorate the arrival of Italian navigator and explorer Christopher Columbus in the New World in October 1492. Since then, many things taught about Columbus in schools years ago have been updated. Here's a few things, I gathered from online sources, including Wikipedia:
- Christopher Columbus is an Anglicized version of Cristoforo Colombo.
- He didn't discover that the earth is round and he didn't explore North America. He made 4 trips to the new world between 1492 and 1503.
- He set out to discover a shorter route to Asia, planning to give Spain an advantage in the Asian spice trade. He died believing that he had done so.
- Three countries, Portugal, France and England, said No, before Spain said Yes.
- He left Spain with 3 ships, returned with 2 (the Santa Maria was shipwrecked on Christmas Day).
- He's only one of 2 people to have an American holiday named after him; the other is Martin Luther King (apparently holidays named after U.S. Presidents figure differently).
12 comments:
As you know, it's TG up here. We're having nice weather and went for a woodsy walk yesterday before enjoying a yummy turkey.
someone said to me at the YMCA this morning, that she wondered if it would be open today. I said what is today? she said Columbus day. and i said that makes me wonder just why we have a day for him. makes no sense to me. those pumpkins are really beautiful and perfect. our festival here is a bust. we have had more rain since April than anytime in the history of our area. the pumkins don't like rain, and they have half what they usually do, plus the festival did not do well because the fields are so wet people would not stay because of the muck they had to walk in.
Those apples look great.
As for us, we attended Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute, here in Hawaii. It was so beautifully sung.
My kids in Chicago area had to go to work but they had to hire a babysitter for my grandson as all the schools are closed today. I like all your fall colors with leaves and pumpkins.
Many people believe that Christopher Columbus was Italian. Actually he was born in Genoa. At that time Genoa was a city-state which was considered to be separate from all other countries. The pumpkins look good and I am ready for pumpkin flavored goodies.
Wonderful photos . Looks like a great time . Thanks for remembering us over here in Canada for our Thanksgiving . Thanks for sharing , Have a good day ! Happy Columbus day to you both !
Such beautiful photos! I didn't remember (I blame being sick for so long and it addled my brain!) that it was Columbus Day and went to the drive-thru at the bank. It took me a few minutes to realize they were closed! lol! Have a nice week!
I knew it was Columbus Day, though I find it peculiar- the man never stepped onto the soil of the United States.
Glad you had such a great time. Your pictures showed a whole lot of fun. Yes I hope we will be able to meet up one of these days.
Lovely photos. Very interesting and informative post.
Best wishes
We've had some very lovely fall days, but it is supposed to be much cooler with a chance of frost here this weekend. Great pictures! Looks like you are making the most of autumn.
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