Apples Again And A Few Pears Too

Just lately I've begun to feel rather overwhelmed by fruit, in particular apples. Every day at Norton Conyers has been dominated by them this month and with such a bumper crop we have been harvesting non stop. Saturday saw us make another batch of cider and juice, fun the first time but after a few hours of pounding the flesh to pulp it gets a bit tedious. Today we had to pick a crop for the apple lady who makes jams and jellies, we filled seventy crates, that's a lot of bending and stooping as many were windfalls. We did have a bit of fun with the sheep in the paddock who took quite a shine to us when they thought we were shaking the tree for their benefit, I've never known them to be so bold, they were even attempting to pinch them from the crates.

Just about then the heavens decided to open, making our task even less pleasurable, and by the time all the crates were loaded into the van we were all thoroughly soaked. Then we moved onto the pears, luckily there were much less of them. The pear is a rather strange fruit in my opinion, particularly around harvest time when it refuses to ripen so you go away and leave it for a few days only to find it has gone over whilst your back was turned! That thankfully is the end of the fruit harvest for this year.

"Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe"
Voltaire