The apples on the tree at the back are starting to get bigger and becoming slightly pink. We seemed to have a very high rate of fertilization this year, and some of the branches have up to eight apples per clump.  I think I was supposed to manually reduce the numbers a few weeks ago, but I didn’t and tree seems to be doing this naturally. Or else maybe the racoons are shaking them loose. Every morning there are about 10 – 15 unripe hard little apples in the grass and I am trying to pick them up daily so that they don’t rot or attract more rodents.

Raspberry picking is also a daily activity. Many are eaten fresh, but I am managing to freeze some for future domestic experiments. The berries have reached their peak and there are no more flowers on the canes, just ripening berries. Next years canes are already up and starting to get in the way, so last night I tied some of the biggest ones back so that they won’t get trampled and broken by my assistants.

Last night my nephew ate about 100000 raspberries and then threw up. This morning while I was picking them, I noticed that the South side of the patch was totally stripped of berries – even the small hard green ones had been eaten!  Too funny!