via Daily Prompt: Tree

Tasmania was once known as The Apple Isle. That industry has declined since the 1960’s and many orchards have been pulled up.

I would love to have been here in the days when there were trucks lined up to load apples into the ships that berthed at Port Huon Wharf.

Here in the Huon Valley where I live there are fewer apple orchards than there were when I came here in 2002. However there are still quite a few and I love to watch them through the year as they go from bare trees in the winter, blossoms in the spring and finally the harvest in late summer and autumn.

Although we don’t export as many apples there is a renewed interest in cider making and several cider makers have started up in the Huon over the past few years.

Apple orchard – Waterloo, Tasmania

I follow this progress in my own back garden too where I have one apple tree. For a few weeks in March each year I need only go outside  and pick one when I want an apple. The rest of the time I like to buy them from the many roadside stalls near the orchards where you can choose your apples and leave the money in an “Honesty Box”.

I also take a lot of pleasure from the bird life that my apple tree attracts. In summer I can’t see them as they are usually hidden by the leaves but if something startles them  a cloud of birds emerges from it. I enjoy their chirping and don’t begrudge them a few apples.