"Comfort me with apples...

...for I am sick with love" Song of Songs

In 1999 we knocked down an old chicken shed and put a vegetable garden in its place. We planted 8 apple trees to mark where the garden ended and the vegetable garden began. They are under-planted with iris, which look wonderful in late spring. We bought 8 named varieties of apples from a reputable garden centre and carefully labelled them when we planted them. But when we got our first proper harvest of apples 3 or 4 years later it was obvious that the trees didn't match the labels, and they weren't even shuffled, they were completely different. So we have 8 beautiful unknown apple trees. Some apples are early, some are late, some are eaters, some are cookers. There are sweet ones and tart ones, red, yellow and green ones. Here are some red ones against the sky that was blue between noon and 6, but raining before and after.