I’ve been ‘out of sorts’ today, fretting about work pressures and feeling distinctly grumpy that instead of doing all those things I’d planned this weekend I will have to spend a substantial amount of time working for my company just to try to keep my head above water. How that fills me with gloom.

One thing has been ‘tickling’ me though and that’s Ian’s brilliant posting yesterday and his comment on Jill’s wonderful paper towel shot. When I then saw Jeanne’s lippy and her comment on Ian’s pic I roared with laughter…..David’s comment about the elephant too. We messaged Jill to suggest an apple fest and she thought it a splendid idea. Ian was resolute though and got his apple shot in before we were even awake…..in fact several hours before we were awake – Ian, not having kids brings a number of free little luxuries like waking at 10am on a Saturday!!!

One little problem though, I don’t eat apples. No really, I know you all expect veggies to be stuffing their faces with fruit all the time but I really don’t eat much fruit at all. So, a dilemma, do we buy apples to photograph – no, we’ll take a more lateral approach! So here are three apples that are seventeen years old! I know that because the one on the left was made with wood from an apple tree that was blown down on 16th October 1987 – the day of the great storm that flattened much of southern England….oh and I should also mention the day I got married! I should have taken the weather as a warning that I shouldn’t do it but for some stupid reason I failed to heed the warning and went ahead anyway.

These apples were a gift from my friend Colin, one of my oldest and best friends. His uncle made them so they are a very personal gift indeed. I still treasure them even though one has decidedly dodgy memories for me.

As I write this I hear news that ‘The Spurs’ have just scored a goal away against Leeds, another of the struggling teams in the Premiership…..can we hold on for the win? Oh boy I hope so. It’s a dog-eat-dog world when relegation is a possibility!

STOP PRESS: We won!