dimanche 15 avril 2007

Apple Blossoms Are they the loveliest of all? From reading the April entry in The Book of Days I know why I am currently looking at, smelling, picking to arrange in a jar of water for the kitchen table, often photographing and sometimes writing about... "Beautiful above all, are the fruit-trees, now in blossom. The peaches seem to make the very walls to which they are trailed burn again with their bloom, while the cherry-tree looks as if a shower of daisies had rained it, and adhered to the branches. The plum is one mass of unbroken blossom, without shewing a single green leaf, while, in the distance, the almond-tree looks like some gigantic flower, whose head is one tuft of bloom, so thickly are the branches embowered with buds. Then come the apple-blossoms, the loveliest of all, looking like a bevy of virgins peeping out of their white drapery, covered with blushes; while all the air around is perfumed with the fragrance of the bloom, as if the winds had been out gathering flowers, and scattered the perfume everywhere as they passed. All day long the bees are busy among the bloom, making an unceasing murmur, for April is beautiful to look upon; and if she hides her sweet face for a few hours behind the rain-clouds, it is only that she may appear again peeping out through the next burst of sunshine in a veil of fresher green, through which we see the red and white of her bloom." There seems no end to it... every morning when I draw the curtains apart, throw open the windows and look out across the landscape - or after a warming wake-up drink and wander across the garden or down the lane - I see new drifts of colours. These are not single fragile blooms picked out against the earthy colours of farmland - a muted palette of greens and browns at this time of the year when Nature is also awakening - but explosions of vividness when highlighted in shafts of sunlight coming from just above the horizon at the early hour... and at other times they look like confetti showers of petals when caught in a breeze. How they are best described is beyond my skills, but I try by combining images with words to capture them before they disappear - transforming into another stage of their growth cycle for another year. Nature changes with the four seasons (as I have photographed before on a monthly and quarterly basis) and I want to continue recording these blossoms of Spring, as well as their fruits in the Autumn, to get a better idea of what is happening in the world around me. And then there are the quince trees in the garden, also in blossom and which I shall write about in a day or so. Some blossom here has already been dashed by the wind and rain, so I was fortunate to have already photographed the Cherry for another day, and also the Quince which, like the Apple is at its best at the moment. Note, though, how regions and climates change as indicated by the dates below, differing by six weeks, of the Apple Blossom Festivals in Washington State, California, Virginia and Nova Scotia, Canada. When I see any fruit tree in blossom at this time of year I can tell what the fruit will be but not the variety. One way would be to look up the A-to-Z of apples recorded in the United Kingdom at the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale Farm, Faversham, East Kent, which includes 1,867 varieties from "Abbondanza" to "Zomer Delicious" as well as 94 Cider Apples and 65 Ornamental Malus / Crab Apples. The Apple Collection is thought to be the most comprehensive authenticated collection of varieties in the world and is therefore an internationally recognised genetic resource... and there are 18 other types of fruits and their many varieties listed too! How times have changed though. In the weblog of 26th August 2005 describing my collection of Citrus Fruit Wrappers (including a few rarer ones from English apple and pear orchards collected from local market stalls in the early 1960s) I wrote that... Journalist and broadcaster George Monbiot in his revealing article, "Fallen Fruit - An insane European ruling will be the final straw for the English apple" published in The Guardian in 2004 said, "...last winter, when I wanted to buy some fruit trees. I had a copy of the "Fruit and Vegetable Finder" published in 1995. It listed J.C. Allgrove's as the last of the great nurseries of the Thames Valley. In the 1940s it kept 1,000 varieties of apple tree, and in 1995 it still sold 250. I rang the number in the book and a woman answered, "I'm sorry dear, we've closed." It is worth bookmarking Monbiot.com for his challenging coverage of both home and international politics as well as other important and current concerns. For those on the other side of a different pond at this time of year there's the opportunity to plan visiting the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival held between April 26th and May 6th... And on April 28/29th the 61st Sebastopol Apple Blossom Festival in Western Sonoma County, California... With the 80th Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival at Winchester, Virginia (75 miles west of Washington DC) from May 1st to May 6th... Followed by the 75th Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival between May 30th and June 4th - billed as a springtime celebration of their traditions and agricultural heritage... the aim being to promote the best family event for all Valley communities and visitors making it the leading festival in Nova Scotia, Canada. Here in France one sees many examples of the closely related Crab Apple dotted along country roads... basically the original wild stock from which many varieties have been cultivated over the centuries for cooking, eating and cider making. The Romans cultivated the apple and Pliny spoke of twenty-two different varieties; John Parkinson in his "Paradisus Terrestris" (1629) listed fifty-seven; and John Evelyn in the preface to his "Pomona" (1664) wrote, "It was through the plain industry of one Harris, a fruiterer to Henry VIII, that the fields and environs of about thirty towns in Kent were planted with fruit from Flanders to the universal benefit and general improvement of the county." It was also at this time (1650s) that Samuel Hartlib, Cromwell[base ']s Minister of Education, spoke of "...two hundred sorts of apples." So there you have it... a prolific fruit greatly varied and valued. Much later, but still a century and some ago Kate Greenaway was creating exquisite drawings from life and nature (it is said she had a photographic memory) which were used to illustrate books widely popular in Britain and America and which are still selling today. I mention her in context here... one such illustration, "Baby Sleeps in Its Cradle Among the Apple Blossom...", is available below. Baby Sleeps in Its Cradle Among the Apple Blossom Unaware of the Danger That Giclee Print Greenaway, Kate 18 in. x 24 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed   Mounted 8:59:24 PM    comment []