Courtesy of Anvilcloud.
CAN YOU FILL THIS OUT WITHOUT LYING?
1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth?
- coffee. What else?
2. Where was your profile picture taken?
- in front of the Pacific Ocean
3. Worst pain you've ever experienced?
- trapezoid muscle spasm. I would rather have a baby than do that again.
4. Favorite place you've traveled to?
- Blue Ridge Parkway
5. How late did you stay up last night?
- About 11:30. I mostly wait till my husband has finished watching TV.
6. If you could move somewhere else, where would it be?
- I like it here.
8. Which of your Facebook friends lives closest to you?
- Alice
9. How do you feel about Turkey burger?
- Ick
10. When was the last time you cried?
- Monday
11. Who took your profile picture?
- the YD. I think. could have been Tam.
12. Who was the last person you took a picture with?
- I take a lot of nature shots in the yard. A deer and fawns were photographed Monday.
13. What's your favorite season?
- Autumn
14. If you could have any career, what would it be?
- artist/photographer.
15. Do you think relationships are ever worth it?
- Depends
16. If you could talk to ANYONE right now who would it be?
- my deceased best friend.
17. Are you a good influence?
- Hope not.
18. Does pineapple belong on pizza?
- Never
19. You have the remote, what channel?
- I'm a wife. What remote?
20. What are you most afraid of?
- mental degeneration.
Please fill free to copy this and put your own answers in. I would love to read them if you do it, so please let me know.
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Thursday, 3 August 2017
As sure as God Made Little Green Apples
I love our
apple tree, or trees I should say. The major tree, trunk almost hollow with
age, is the last of the trees planted in the old orchard created in the 19th
Century on the land we bought in the 1970’s for recreational use. The smaller
trunk is, we assume, grown from seed that germinated under the original. When
we first bought this land, there was an old gentleman named Pollock McDougall
who filled us in on a lot of the history of our place, and he told us the tree
was a Macintosh planted around the turn of the century, one of two, the last
trees planted. It seems to exist with only the bark to support it at the
ground.
In Bloom |
The
original orchard was fenced with rails because cattle or sheep had been grazed
on the field around it. It was in terrible shape when we first arrived, with
some trees down and others half broken, but most of the trees were producing
wormy and scabby apples and I could easily gather enough for a pie when I
wanted one. There was one antique snow apple tree that produced a few amazing fruits
every year. From the other trees, my mother collected boxes full one year and made
apple jelly.
A Sad old Orchard |
We spent
several years trying to bring the trees back, pruning and spraying and
chopping, but the better the apples became the more bears and porcupines and
raccoons and squirrels attended the orchard, breaking off big branches from the
brittle old trees and creating havoc. JG shot a few, but since we were only able
to defend it on weekends, the trees were killed one by one until only the one
Macintosh remained.
We decided
to build our forever house where the orchard had been to take advantage of the
fall of the ground that gave us a walk-out basement (and a miraculous lack of
bedrock). But we kept the Macintosh.
putting in lawn seed around the apple tree |
A fall haircut. With cat. |
As I watch
the juvenile birds’ antics I also see the bare branches and diseased leaves. I
also see a great many little green apples, soon to be little red and yellow
scabby apples, beloved by squirrel and deer. The deer like the leaves as they
fall as well.
The deer,
in fact, seem to be taking over. I looked out the kitchen window a few days ago
and saw a sleek young doe eating my orange lilies. !! Deer are not supposed to like orange lilies;
the flowers bloom with impunity in every ditch. Not mine. This [censored] doe
and her friends have stripped two lily beds in my yard. And we feed the
wretched animals fine deer ration regularly. One of my Facebook friends lost
her geraniums to an equally deranged doe and is threatening to shoot.
What would
our world be without birds and trees and flowers? Without deer too, beautiful
and unpredictable animals that they are. I imagine, sometimes in my worst
moments, a wildfire roaring through our peaceful wilderness. My husband
imagines bulldozers and a pod of ticky-tack houses built on the other side of
our road. We do not have to imagine the
climate changes as they take place under our noses; the disappearing Monarch
butterflies; the changes in bird populations; invasive species of weed in every
ditch, and the dead branches and leaves on my brave apple tree. There are still
lots of little green apples for the deer this year but I can foresee a time
when they will be gone, when so many things will be gone.
Is this what it looked like on the tree in Eden when we were tempted and we fell? |
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