Really?? An apple blossom in autumn?

Today’s blossoms on our apple tree say clearly that it’s summer.  The lawn chairs with legs akimbo say the winds of autumn have arrived.  The flagpole sans flags announce that winter storms are expected.

I think the chairs win!  The calendar says September 29th — the sixth day of autumn, 2019.  I’d forgotten (if ever I knew) that Our Grand Affair was on the last day of summer.  It was definitely a day that telegraphed “Autumn On Its Way” and here we are, a week later, with all the signs pointing toward Halloween and Thanksgiving.

The morning after a windy night!

Except for that one, lonely apple blossom.  I wonder if it will become an apple…  I haven’t seen any bees in the garden for a while so I’m not hopeful.  Nor do I expect any long, sunny days which I also think are necessary for the fruit-setting to occur.  Maybe Larkin will weigh in with a thought on the subject.  I remember long ago when I had a fruit tree question, Larkin had a great deal more information for me than all the internet sites put together.

Lonely Flagpole

Yesterday, Nyel and I spent a few hours outside in the sun — me puttering and deadheading, Nyel  giving occasional advice and dozing over his book.  Now that he is able to be outside, it seems wrong for the season to change so quickly.  Come to think of it, maybe THAT”S why the apple tree is blooming — to welcome Farmer Nyel back to the garden.

The girls, on the other hand, seemed very shy.  But then, you never know about chickens… social one day, uppity the next.  Maybe they were just embarrassed about their featherless, molting condition which Nyel did, indeed, notice — even from afar.  He was sympathetic, mostly.  But I did hear him mutter, “Dumb time of year to molt,” though he knows full well they are right on schedule.  What was Mother Nature thinking, anyway, when she decreed that molting should occur when the days grow shorter?