Plenty

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, very windy, but gorgeous.  Overnight, it seems, the apple trees' blossoms burst open. 

My orchard is not tidy, nor do I prune the trees or thin out the growing apples just so I can have bigger apples, although I do rake under the trees every autumn before I put down mulch.  I just can't cut them, much the same as I cannot bring myself to pick flowers. 

I know it sounds silly, but I feel like I'm hurting them.  The trees like to grow this way, so why not let them be happy?  They certainly make me happy. When the apple trees absolutely have to be pruned for their health, I hire someone and hover over them to make sure they prune only what is necessary.  I'm always being told I could get a bigger crop and prettier apples if I used pesticides and pruned every winter.  Pesticides!?  Never.

I think the apples my trees give me are beautiful, small though they are.  Some are bug bitten...so what?  Bugs have to live too.  Some are oddly shaped, but they still taste just as sweet-tart, crisp and juicy as the perfectly formed ones.  I always have plenty to give family and friends, plenty for the deer, bears, skunks and raccoons, and plenty for myself and my husband. 

What more could one ask?

Complete

"The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth." Henry Beston, naturalist and author 1888 - 1968

Lions and Tigers and...

All kinds of animals! The little bear peeking out in the above photo was done for me by a wood carving friend from the trunk of a 100 year old Ponderosa pine that was killed by the bark beetle infestation that swept through this forest several years ago. A lot of other people had/are having the same thing done.

This is in front of the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead.

This little raccoon eating a fish is down at the San Moritz Club at Lake Gregory. I remember going there as a guest in the late 1950's when I was eight or nine. The lake was bigger then than it is now. There is now a ball field where a part of the lake used to be! It hasn't operated as a private club for a long time and is now owned by San Bernardino County (I think; I'm not 100% sure).

This photo, and the ones below, are from various places around these mountains.

Some wood carver did a marvelous job on this dog!