August 2021 Island Trip – Day 13

I picked more apples before bringing in the orchard ladder and ‘picker.’ The picker is a basket of sorts on a long pole. On one side of the basket (7-8” in diameter) the metal edges extend up and then bend toward the inside of the basket so you can get these bent bits around fruit, tug, and the fruit falls into the basket. All the apples trees are old and neglected. I used the picker carefully, but it seemed to tear at precious fruiting branchlettes. I’d rather let the raccoons have the apples than damage the trees… I think a cider press is in our future, as is some more serious care and feeding of the trees. Yes, abandoned apples fruit for decades, if not centuries, and I want to nurse these trees along.

After a look at the forecast, I closed Stella down instead of leaving a couple of windows ajar. I felt anxious about the order of operations in running down my checklist, looking for logical flow, which never seems to be available. For the first time I resigned myself to being OK with walking back and forth, in and out, and up and down in an unorganized, and barely (to me) logical fashion. Closing up a ‘house’ and property doesn’t necessarily have good flow. That has to be OK.

I headed to town hoping to get on the earlier boat. It was very hard to leave the property. Not tear-jerking hard, but soul searching hard. I’m still searching. The earlier boat was full to overflowing. Lunch and meandering filled my time until I could get in line for the boat I had a reservation on. The drive home was easy, and I arrived home to our eastern neighbor, who stayed with us before flying east for a family gathering. I walked up the stairs and said, “Hi Honey, I’m home!” She replied in the affirmative, and it was grand to hang out with her for the evening. The three of us are good company. Her visit kinda helped bridge the space and reconnection between the two parts of my life.