It looks like a good year for apples at the Lovestead. All tolled, over the 32 years we've owned our own property, I've probably picked about three dozen apples from our trees.

When we bought the place on Great Northern Road in 1977, we had about half a dozen fruit trees. The horses took care of that the following year by eating all the bark and killing the trees.

I planted various young trees over the years without much luck or fruition.

This year, during the winter when the snow was 'steen feet deep, I could actually snowshoe out to the two older trees and prune 'em. The feeling of standing face to face with apple limbs was divine. Now, to see the trees looking so shapely and so loaded down with pastel pink gold is beyond divine.

Adding to that, Chad Moore, the beemeister from Sagle, brought his honey-bee hives for their annual summer stay in Taylor's field across the road on Memorial Day. It didn't take those bees more than a couple of hours to find our trees.

Now, the bees are happily buzzing amongst the millions of blossoms, and I'm busting my buttons with pride and expectation for a bountiful apple crop this fall.

I can taste that lumpy homemade applesauce already, and I'm sure Chad is looking forward to lots of gallons of his rich and gooey honey.