tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post6828443918690303372..comments2023-10-30T09:26:32.732+00:00Comments on Now's the time: texture, clock, fruitAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-80072393781500977872009-10-12T12:58:48.113+01:002009-10-12T12:58:48.113+01:00"But it stopped, short, never to go again...&..."But it stopped, short, never to go again..."<br /><br />I live in a country not known for the excellence of it's apples, but the Granny Smith thing is probably just a matter of taste. I have to admit to buying Pink Ladies and enjoying them in the season. They are precious and expensive, but they are French produced.<br /><br />I remember just once reaching and attaining the topmost apple of a tree in my parents' garden, and leaning against the branch I had climbed up to get it and eating it in the cold October air. No apple will ever be its equal, though I don't know the variety.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-32149204772560366572009-10-06T15:30:04.622+01:002009-10-06T15:30:04.622+01:00Crow: I like the sound of your apple country and o...Crow: I like the sound of your apple country and of the farmers who only harvest them when they are ripe. Where we live - Kent is known as the Garden of England - there are still apple orchards where old varieties are grown and treated with the respect due to them. Last year at about this time or a bit later, or maybe it was the year before - I posted an account of a stand at the Tunbridge Wells Farmer's Market, where there was a stall with at least 30 different apple varieties. Many of them have delightful names as I am sure the apples in your part of the world do.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-27994028786821908102009-10-06T14:30:56.454+01:002009-10-06T14:30:56.454+01:00Reading the comments about apples, especially Plut...Reading the comments about apples, especially Plutarch's, I am doubly grateful I live in apple orchard country. I look forward to visiting some of the smaller farms' fruit stands in progressive weeks because they insist on harvesting the different varieties when they are ripe, not when the market demands them. This coming weekend, I'm going to the National Apple Harvest Festival in the next county west of here.<br /><br />My favorite apples are the Grime's Golden and the original Winesap, very hard to find these days because they aren't popular with the big-chain grocers.<br /><br />Great photo of the sun beds.The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04846997590157958766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-54759407778693712612009-10-06T13:49:10.724+01:002009-10-06T13:49:10.724+01:00M-L The patterns of sun-beds set up and stacked fo...M-L The patterns of sun-beds set up and stacked for storage was interesting and I found myself drawn to them as much as I was repelled by the idea of barbecuing myself while lying on one of them.<br /><br />M-L and BB: The clock has had a small spirit level on the mantle piece beside it for a number of years. It rests on four adjustable brass feet. During its recent episode of misbehaviour, I found that I could regulate it with the help of a thin piece of card under a foot, but not satisfactorily. No folds, two fold or three folds helped with fine adjustment. But something more profound was amiss. As I say, I had to go on holiday and return to find harmony restored, without as far as I know human or other intervention.<br /><br />Apples. I mustn't start on apples. The problem with apples is not so much the variety as the commercial framework in which the fruit is harvested, distributed and displayed for sale. Apples should, as you say, be crisp and crunchy: juice should spurt with every bite. But in response to supermarket demands apples are now picked before they ripen properly. Often they are stored under inert gass to keep them apparently fresh for weeks, even months. The result is balsa wood.The opportunity to buy a crisp and juicy apple must now be confined to farmers' markets and the like. I have always thought that Granny Smiths were excellent apples, and have found that even Golden Delicious can live up to their name, but only when picked at the right time. Cox, that great name in apple culture, has become a joke since farmers were persuaded to pick them too early. There used to be a pyo farm in Otford, Kent, where the farmer would not allow the fruit to be picked until there had been a frost in mid-October. I remember the crunchy texture and the wonderful aroma and flavour, with nostalgia. Nowadays they are all in barns or hoppers by mid-September, and tastless and usually crunchless by the time they reach the shops.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-86908013390469971982009-10-06T11:12:22.038+01:002009-10-06T11:12:22.038+01:00I feel I'm clomping all over your touching clo...I feel I'm clomping all over your touching clock/man relationship with hob-nail boots, but does the clock stand on adjustable legs? Such clocks often do and the adjustment can be super precise. Tiny surface differences are quickly detected at the new location and the clock, like the displaced wild animal or bird, reacts against the change.<br /><br />The fact that your clock appears to finally accept its <em>déménagement</em> does introduce some anthropomorphic mystery, and this is just as well. Levelling a clock requires a spirit level and involves work in two inter-related dimensions, the sort of task that can render an impatient person like me quite barmy.<br /><br />Though I can't pretend to take my breakfast preparation as far as you take Heidi's, I am pleased to see that it involves fruit. It took me years - decades - to establish an acceptable range of comestibles for breakfast. Fruit proved to be the answer and apples are vital, mainly for their consistency rather than their flavour. Crunching is part of waking up, hence Grannies. It came as a great shock to read one of Lucy's posts about apples and to find she has nothing but contempt for Grannies. I have remained silent on this subject until now and am emerging apprehensively from the cupboard.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-69986519077274575572009-10-05T18:15:55.824+01:002009-10-05T18:15:55.824+01:00Interesting pattern in the photo, almost abstract....Interesting pattern in the photo, almost abstract. I love the story of your clock, the idea that it may be affected by the presence or lack of someone/something magnetic nearby, like a ghost. And the fruit plates paint a sunny picture of breakfast in your home.marja-leenahttp://www.marja-leena-rathje.infonoreply@blogger.com