The blossoms came and left each year and the fruit was always small and spare. The only ones tasting it were the squirrels running up the tree trunk to dine on my apples. Of course the birds who had two feeders and water provided in my back yard always wanted to nip and take tiny bites from the apples .. by harvest time no apples would be left and each year it was the same.

This dwarf tree reached skyward and scratched the clouds as they passed by or so it seemed to me ..A few years ago I asked someone to trim the tree to make the apples accessible to me .We discussed what I wanted and then I had to go inside because the phone was ringing . When I returned the tree trimmer had indeed trimmed the tree ....from the bottom up...!

For the past two years the tree has bloomed in spring and the amount of fruit increased and this year it was covered with blossoms and the fruit started to show shape. Of course it would take a giant of a man on a step ladder to retrieve the apples.

Some tall friends were able to pull branches low enough to pick enough apples for a pie....theirs not mine. What could I say ? Hadn't I told them to help themselves?

As summer moved on the tree showed it was carrying a huge load , considering I have raked and shoveled at least 5 bushels for the garbage can. I would say my tree has reached maturity and so have I ...perhaps I can just think raking and shoveling rotten apples as exercise ...but I do have to be careful because some bee hive somewhere has apple blossom honey and they hover in and over the apples and I think I can say the extra flies this year are due to them using the hollowed out apples left by the squirrels as breeding grounds!

 anna