one reward for doing STILL blog every day for this long is that it has turned me into an instinctive phenologist. for instance, i feel sure that all the apple trees i’m seeing still loaded with rotten apples in march is something unusual. if it were commonplace, i would have noticed it two years ago and again last year. in fact i would have photographed it. wouldn’t i? i’m not sure i know why–why weren’t these apples released to the ground in november? why didn’t birds, racoons, and squirrels make an autumn feast of them? how could they not have served as food for someone–lightly rotten but still nutrient-rich–over the course of such a brutally taxing winter? the fact that i’m asking the questions is it’s own reward i suppose. maybe, in the end, trees full of mushy march apples happen every year. and it just took STILL blog three years to teach me.
apple on a bare branch in march
saint paul, minnesota
Maybe it somehow just knows to hang on? In the winter of 2012 the grapes on the vine on our house never fell. The next spring (2013), hundreds of robins got stuck in the area because of some late snow. They ate all the grapes and left purple poo on the sidewalks. It was an amazing thing to see all those robins in our backyard!
Hi Manisha-
What a great story, thank you! i sure hope these apples aren’t signs of spring storms in our future!! but then again, if they were i would be totally awed by that too.
Mary Jo
I often think of you as a phenologist! Always out observing, photographing and commenting on nature and its cycles. Have you ever thought of joining nature’s notebook? We recently wrote a little post about it here: http://liveseasoned.com/phenology-observing-mother-natures-cycles/ , it might interest you. Either way-we love your work :)
xo