An explanation.....

A bit back I mentioned popcorn bloom...I had meant to link back to a post with the photos below but forgot to. Then I wanted to find the rest of the photos and rescan them with the scanner I have now...it would do a better job. But guess what?--I could not find them.
Anyway, these first two photos were taken by Roger....at the orchard I used to work at. I had broken my leg that year, and had a walking cast on it still when these were taken. It had rained and everything was just saturated, so Roger took the photos for us. You have to enlarge these to even get an inkling of what it was like.
And compare the photos above with one below that I took 3 or 4 years ago...notice in the one above there is not one bud that is not open, but in the one below, some clusters are all bloomed while other clusters of blooms have not even begun.

My boss' wife, or as we always said, the one that wrote my checks, explained to me that it was called popcorn bloom when all the blossoms bloomed at once and all the trees bloomed at the same time...a rare occurrence. And I must say that I started work there in the fall of 1987, and the time above has been the one and only time it happened to this date.
I wanted to get out there this spring to take more photos, but I am probably too late now. I talked to my partner in crime out there and they were blooming there a couple weeks ago. I also wanted to get up to the big orchard up north, and haven't had the chance to go back. I think this is one of the first years I haven't seen them both during part of the bloom...and last year is the first year that has went by that I haven't been out to 'our' orchard in the fall during harvest.

I must say there is only one or two things more fun to do that pick apples...just something about looking and seeing what all has been accomplished during the day. And fun being out in the sun and even rain, though not fun when it is so muddy you have to worry about getting your picker stuck, or when it is hard to get the tractor to pull the load up a slick, clay hill.

When I first started there, we used to pick into crates and load them on the wagon. During the last few years, we started picking into milk crates, pouring them into a big bin that held approx 10-12 bushels. There were 3 or 4 of those bins on a mud boat....the mud boat would just dig into the mud and not slide over the ground as easily as it did when it was dry.

That mud boat was about like having a tractor and trailer sometimes...to have that thing trailing behind always took a little bit of thinking when wanting to turn around and head back to the barn with a load. There were always a tree missing here or one there, but you had to take into consideration were the apples still on the tree you were swinging through...or even if you just went to the end of the row it took some thought in a couple places.

I sometimes wonder if I will ever forget where things are out there...the different varieties of trees. And the odd trees planted here and there....I was always supposed to map out where everything was for the other girls...just never got it accomplished.

I also always mean to go and pick a day or two in the fall but never do...I am afraid I would either be disappointed, or else I would not be satisfied with just a day!

Neat and tidy

I like how everything about this barn is neat and tidy...if you click and enlarge, you can see the shovel hanging inside. It gives the feeling that everything is ship shape, and nothing out of place.
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Rainy here today...about half the day. We did make it to the greenhouse and got tomato plants, as well as some bell peppers. But the garden is too wet to get in right now to plant. I am ready for tomatoes from the garden...I can't wait to have one to bring in, peel back a little bit of the peeling back, sprinkle with salt and eat till the juice runs down my chin and arm. That requires sitting out on the step, but that is okay. Fresh tomatoes are one of my favorite things in life!

Empty right now....

This is at the orchard up north....when we passed through there the way the tree loomed over it caught my eye.
Then I isolated the outhouse with the tree, and it seemed even more massive. Or maybe it is just that the outhouse seems so insignificant. Notice how the tree, outhouse, and light pole all lean one way while the house and the young trees in the background don't lean at all. If I remember correctly the trees are staked so they can't lean.
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I remember our grade school had an outhouse for boys on one corner of the school ground and the girls was on the other corner. I always remembered the teachers waited till recess was over before they went to the bathroom, and to the best of my memories, that happened very few times. Can you imagine walking down a dirt path in dress shoes and dress clothes? I think the two that lived there close by would sometimes run home.

My brother and I were talking about our teachers, and wondering if getting assigned to our school was looked forward to or if it was almost a disgrace, or some sort of punishment. At least two of the teachers lived within a mile or two of school, so it might have really been an appealing position for them. Also, even with each teacher teaching two grades, our classes were small...very small. I think, with the exception maybe of a time or two when a student came and left, our class always had the same 10 students in it. I should have ask my other friends before writing this, maybe I am forgetting someone.

In our 7th & 8th grade, we had the principal as our teacher. I never felt like he enjoyed us at all. And I really don't think he had a clue about what went on in class. When we had to read out loud, some of the boys in the grade above us would reach over and cover the page of one of my friends till she could not see what she was reading. He would tell her such words as 'the' and 'this' or 'her' and 'him'....and never look up. And this for an A student! Everyone in class could read those words....not once did he look up to see what was going on.

We had a basketball court, but could only take one basketball out. Or one softball, or one volleyball. But there was a big metal locker that was full of basketballs, footballs, and I don't know what else. The principal would not let us have a football...I think my friend and I ask for one one time. His reply was no touch ball.

Yet we used the volleyball in what we called 'keep-away,' and sometimes the whole gang of us would end up in a big pile fighting for the ball. We could not have played any rougher if we had had a football.

We played all games unsupervised...yet very seldom was there an argument. And I don't ever remember there being a serious argument. We might fuss a bit over whether someone was out or safe, but went on and played. When we were young, my best friend and I played ball with the older boys. We had to get permission from that same principal mentioned above...his words were 'no crying.'

We had times when we played jump rope, red rover, tag, Mother may I, hide and seek, etc...or swung on the swings. When they were up...I think part of the time they were taken down for some reason. We would swing in those swings just as high as we could and bale out...I don't know how we didn't end up crippled as much as we jumped out of those swings. But as far as I know, it never hurt any of us.

These are just a few of my thoughts when I see an outhouse...who would ever think that an old outhouse could evoke such memories?