Apples and trees

Today’s post is both a bit of gratitude, and a bit of “What’s actually going on?”

The branches sagging to the ground.

I’ve posted pictures before of the apple tree in back, weighted down with apple blossoms. We’ve picked apples from it once or twice, but we don’t usually get most of them — we have all kinds of wildlife, from blue jays and robins to deer. So when I really looked at the tree last week and saw how weighed down it was by apples, I was quite surprised.

However, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I took the kids out to pick apples this weekend. We got several quarts of apples, and the tree still looks untouched.

Look at how many there are!

What we’ve picked so far

Sliced apple

I started off with applesauce. I’ll do apple butter as well, maybe a couple of apple pies (although the girl doesn’t like them), and some apple compost jelly (made with the peels and cores)… the possibilities are almost endless.

But I do wonder why I haven’t seen the deer around at all, much less why they haven’t lightened the tree as they usually do.

Some of what’s still left on the tree

What are you grateful for this week?

Originally published at Erin M. Hartshorn. You can comment here or there.