At the beginning of April? Yes? No? Well, here they are again, as April opens into the light.

April 4, 2014 … Harold has gone to photograph bluebirds!

And just a few days back? Here are the cherries in full blossom. Imagine the fruit! The trees will be red with it. What a joy to have helped the trees find this balance.

People call this work? I’ve moved on to the apples.

Spartan Tree in Its Last Years

Note the dead branches, from sour sap…but not dead yet!

And to think that all orchards like this have been torn out and replaced with either houses or with industrial, high density blocks, grown with fertilizers and hormones, pruned with hedge clippers, to last ten years before being ripped out. Why, with orchards like that, you couldn’t do this …. 

…you couldn’t prune a man’s trees long after he was dead, and by following what he did in the past be with him … work with him in fact… and learn, and be together. Yes, it’s still possible to prune as an art form, here and there. Don’t let anyone tell you that fruit-growing is an industry. That is only a statement that the ignorant make.