Loose Leaf Notes

1. We had an early spring and then a freeze this year. Not since 2007 have there been no apples at our favorite hidden apple orchard that we call Eden.

2. “Following an old road path, past the rubble of what was once a house site, my footsteps alarm some roosting birds. They whisk themselves off, screeching in protest at my presence in their sanctuary. Down here in the valley, there’s no wind, and I can’t see the Parkway road. I know where I am, but something is wrong. The orchard is empty of color. I walk a little further, down to Joe’s and my favorite tree. It’s set apart from the others in the middle of open valley, and it’s empty too. It’s as if magic has left the world,” I wrote in a 2007 post call A Fall From Grace

3. But I posted about our apple picking tradition before when our bounty overflowed. In 2005, the year my blog began, I posted about how foraged apples were part of the story of how Joe and I met and how we had a tradition of picking apples every year since. “Our favorite red apple tree is at the bottom of a gorge, set apart from the rest of a small, hidden orchard. As soon as we climb over the gate into the pasture that leads down to it, we feel as though we’ve entered the Garden of Eden. And when we arrive at the “our tree,” which looks like something out of a fairytale, we are in awe, amazed by what nature provides,” I wrote in I Met Him at the Laundromat

4. “Years later, a red apple was offered and ceremoniously eaten during our wedding on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” I wrote in a 2006  post titled The Romance of Wild Red Apples.

5. Sometimes our apple picking tradition brought poetry: You’re golden / I’m red delicious / Basking in the sun’s / October glory / You’re Adam / I’m Eve / Fallen from the hold / of daily duty / Love is the fruit  / freely given

6. We shared our magical orchard with our grandsons: “The word glorious came to mind: a bounty of apples picked with our precious grandsons in our favorite abandoned orchard. “I’m taking some good Andrew Wyeth shots,” I said to Joe, who was reassuring three-year-old Liam that the grazing cows wouldn’t hurt us. The rolling mountain countryside had us so enchanted that we all started talking with an Irish lilt.” – From The Post in Which Bryce Sees the Bluebird of Happiness and Liam is Brave Around Cows.

7. Some people go to the Bahamas, out to eat, or exchange gifts for their anniversary.  Joe and I pick apples.  The gifts we receive are the earth’s bounty, winter apple crisp, pies and sauce, as well as time spent together, I wrote in a 2014  post titled Happy Apple Pie of My Eye Anniversary.

8. From Nature’s Grocery Shop 2015: Thistles remind me of pineapple and red apples remind me of Sleeping Beauty.

9. At one point during our apple picking, I put my bagful of apples on the ground.  They spilled out and rolled down a cow path like pin balls in an arcade game.  I couldn’t find the flipper! – From Eden’s Apples 2016 

10. More poetry from 2022’s Who’s the Apple of My Eye:  Apple picking sacrament /is the irony of Eden / The body and blood / of holy communion / Fruit of her womb / round red blessings / I’m humbled in the presence / of Eve’s holy host.

11. Which brings us to this year when most of the trees we were familiar with, including our favorite fairytale tree, were dead, damaged from wind and storms, crowded by new tree growth, or at the very least without apples, which made me realize that land, like people, ages too.

12. The pasture that the cows graze on was covered in yellow flowers, crowding out other flower varieties.  The orchard was so overgrown that we could not walk in the places we once did. There were pears on the lone pear tree, but we couldn’t reach them for the brambles and overgrowth. Only one tree had some apples on it, but they weren’t ripe, so we left them to ripen up.

13. We left with no apples, but as we were hiking out, I came across one solitary Monarch butterfly, which gave me some  hope (even though the last time we were in the orchard there were dozens of them).  Then, Joe found a four-leaf clover. We’re hoping it will bring good luck for next year.

______Thirteen Thursday