A for Apple....

Underneath an apple-tree
Sat a maiden and her lover;
And the thoughts within her he
Yearned, in silence, to discover.
Round them danced the sunbeams bright,
Green the grass-lawn stretched before them
While the apple blossoms white
Hung in rich profusion o'er them.

- Apple Blossoms [Apple Blossoms] by Will Carleton (1845-1912)

We visited the Hilltop Orchards http://www.hilltoporchards.com/index.html in Richmond to pick some apples.

Fine, I admit that I've never even seen an apple tree...not to mention picking apples from the tree! And I definitely did not know that there are SO MANY different varieties of apples. We saw 26 types of New England apples at Hilltop Orchards alone.

We purchased a small plastic carrier for $6 which allowed us to pick as many apples to fill the entire bag. There was a chart to educate us on the different apple types available.

To make identification easier, certain popular apple tree types i.e. McIntosh, IDA had been marked by colored ribbons.

As the apple farm was quite a distance from the main entrance, we were transported there in a farm tractor. See how RG was enjoying his ride!

There were so many apple trees and APPLES!!! Red ones, green ones, yellow ones, good ones, bad ones, half eaten ones.

And so I plucked a beautiful big fleshy one and offered it to RG and he took a big bite!

I absolutely couldn't resist the temptation of a huge crate of red apples and posed for a shot. Oh the vanity!