Hello everyone! As the nights get cooler, the air gets fresher, and the the smell of pumpkin lattes gently wafts in the air everywhere, I’m reminded that summer is too quickly coming to an end; while I absolutely love fall, if I were a flower, I’d bloom in fall, I’m a little sad to see summer go and I think it’s because Darren and I have done a few things this summer we’ve never done before, so I wanted to share before warmer days are gone for good.

First things first, Darren and I went to a Sunflower Festival this summer, which was so fun. It was really really really hot that day, but we went to Barton Orchards, grabbed a cider, listened to live music, and then explored what felt like a never ending field of sunshine and sunflowers. I just love anything that gives you that childlike sense of wonder that makes you stop and think how lucky you are that all of this even exists. That’s how I felt, standing in the sun, on a perfect summer day, feeling like the whole world must be covered in sunflowers, as I couldn’t see the end of the patch. Since it was so warm that weekend, the orchard provided little water bags to make sure your sunflowers made it home and both of ours did – they’re the biggest sunflowers I’ve ever seen!

Also, while we did attend a festival, there are sunflower fields everywhere in upstate New York, so it’s an easy enough day to replicate, festival or not!

Next up, Darren and I went on the cutest date last Friday and I just had to share. For our anniversary, we checked out Benmarl Winery, as I always see it on Instagram and it’s not too far away, they do woodfire pizzas, the best white sangria wine I’ve ever had, and even put on an outdoor movie night every Friday all summer long! This past Friday night, Darren and I packed up some blankets, picked our favorite pie, and grabbed a popcorn to watch Sandlot in the winery’s picture perfect yard. There were twinkle lights and children screaming in delight and everything in the world just felt so right. I had never seen the movie and it was one of those dates where I fell in love with Darren all over again, he’d seen the movie a million times and I’d never seen it once, and he was laughing and saying lines out loud, and we were laughing and cheers-ing, and ate a whole pizza, only to both admit in the car on the way home that we couldn’ve eaten a second whole pizza!

Anyway, this Friday there’ll be another movie and I can’t recommend enough to check it out, it felt a little bit like magic sitting there and tilting my head back as I sipped my wine only to notice the beautiful starry sky above, there’s no place like home and my home is the Hudson Valley.