An Apple a Day...

The old adage is "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" but in this case, when there are NO apples the doctor must perform major surgery. I played the doctor yesterday when I decided to perform a complicated surgery on an apple tree that has clearly not produced fruit in many years. This tree, which stands in the front of the cottage, was being strangled to death by several offshoots or suckers. It was a mess.

I got out my loppers and bow saw and delicately began removing each of the offshoots without cutting into the main trunk, until it was completely free.

Then the pruning and cutting back began. It's kind of like life I guess, when I'm not feeling productive or things just aren't going the way I want them to, I start cutting back and pruning things out of my life until I get the desired results. In the case of the unproductive apple tree, I cut it back hard. The object is to keep it low for easy picking and to try to train the branches to bend downward, clipping back most of the secondary branches that grow straight up. It will take years to do that with this tree because it was left unattended for so long. It doesn't even look like the same tree anymore but I bet it will have some apples next year. I can't wait! I'll keep you posted.

It has been exactly one week since I bought the house and so much has already been done. Each day I try to do a little inside and out but since Michael has been working on a few other construction jobs 

this week, I have pretty much spent my time outside. 

While weeding, I found this rock buried in one of the old gardens and thought how appropriate it was since Michael lives in the Town of Friendship, Maine and our friendship is what is inspiring us to restore and care for this little house.  

My son Tim gave me a Nikon Coolpix P500 camera last Christmas and I am finally putting it to good use. The property offers many opportunities to use it.

I shot this dragonfly yesterday from 8 feet away and look how clear it came out!

A close up of a moth.