Mimicking Nature: The Sharing of An Apple Tree

The art of sharing our abundance in innovative ways

This week has been gray and damp. I used to hate this time of year so much when I moved back to the north years ago, I decided to study the landscape in new ways. I had missed the wild November winds and the shifting landscape so much who was I to dislike any part of the process of these hills?

Now, when I feel the creeping in of the damp weather and the way it can make me dark too, I look for the colors I wouldn’t normally see. I look for the way things become highlighted that are normally lost in the vibrancy of other seasons. These November days can be hard, but I started using that tool again this week as I await the first snow of the year to take the garden officially (a whole month later than it normally does).

Driving through the hilly landscape of Leelanau, I saw this apple tree on a hill. It had begun to release its leaves. All but the bottom ones had found their way to further hills from the gales of November. Yet, on the ground, the golden yellow apples it produced all summer, lay on the ground below it. It felt like a….

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