Apples and I love the seasons

I love the seasons and even living in California I do experience them.

 I grew up in Wisconsin where the seasonal changes are more dramatic. Is there anything in nature more lovely than when the leaves of trees turn fall colors? Winter in Wisconsin means snow, pure white and snowflakes falling gently or heavily. I miss that. Eventually in my beloved Wisconsin snow becomes grey slush and icy driving conditions appear so that is the down side of cold winters. Seasonal changes are definitely more subtle here, but they are here. My tomatoes give up in September and then I can plant a fall veggie garden which I did last weekend.
May Sarton wrote of the autumn that
"For the joys a garden brings are already going as they come. They are poignant. When the first apple falls with that tremendous thud, one of the big seasonal changes startles the heart."
"Plant Dreaming Deep", 1968.

I am using a patio chair to support the heavily weighed apple tree branches from this old tree in our back yard. Our apples are organic, no spray used. The ones that fall to the ground are very fragrant. When we owned an apple tree orchard the fallen apples were fed to happy pigs.

We don't know what kind of apples these are as we did not plant them, but they are a bit tart and ideal for apple crumble and apple pie. A friend on Facebook suggests these are Gravenstein apples and my husband says she may be right.
If you can tell by the photos, let me know what kind of apples these are.

Autumn: poem by Emily Dickinson

Autumn will soon be here.
Emily Dickinson had this to say about the season:
Autumn
The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

The photo was taken by my husband Will on a trip to Connecticut in autumn.

"My Garden" poem by T.E. Brown

My Garden
A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Fern'd grot -
The veriest school
of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not -
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine."

Written by Thomas Edward Brown. 1830-1897. Victorian scholar, teacher, poet, and theologian, from the Isle of Man.
For my dear blog friends with different beliefs, please don't mind this poem, I wanted to share this because it is beautiful. Some poets from Victorian times have a mystical way with words.
The flowers are Canterbury bells and nasturtiums in my garden.

Wordless Wednesday: Purple Prince Zinnias

I like the bold rose purple color of these flowers on two foot tall stems, and the dainty yellow flowers in their centers. The first two photos here that I took do not capture the purple of the petals but I like how they show the tiny yellow petals in the centers.

I plant Purple Prince Zinnias from seed every year, directly in a container and directly in the garden soil outside. They grow very dependably.
Below is a photo from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds showing the purple rose color that more closely matches my flowers.

I am linking with Wordless Wednesday

Book Beginnings: A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

Here is the first sentence for "A Fatal Grace" by Louise Penny, for Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.
"Had C.C. de Poitiers known she was going to be murdered she might have bought her husband, Richard, a Christmas gift."
On page 56 for Friday 56 at Fredas Voice is:
"I suggest we give each other our unsolved cases and spend a few days reading over them. See if we can find something."
This is the second book in the series and I enjoyed the first one. The detective is Inspector Gamache and he works in a small town in Quebec.