I apologize for being absent from Wild Rose Readerfor so long. It has been an especially busy and hectic summer for me. Just this past month, I’ve attended two family weddings, celebrated my granddaughter Julia's first birthday, vacationed in Maine, and bought a house! My husband and I hadn’t planned on moving because we love the house we are living in at the present time--and we love our neighborhood. I have, however, been spending a lot of time away from home living at my daughter’s and providing daycare for my granddaughter. That has left me little time to read, write, blog, spend with my husband, or visit with friends and other family. My husband, daughter, son-in-law, and I decided a few months ago that it would best for all of us if we could find a home where we could all live together. I didn’t think we’d find the perfect place so soon...but we did. It was the first property that we looked at.
Here are some pictures that I took yesterday of the grounds around the house:
My daughter, son-in-law, and Julia will live in the main house—a Georgian farmhouse built around 1790--with an addition that was built circa 1850. My husband and I will live in the in-law suite--the carriage house that was converted into an apartment in 1999.
The original owner of the house was a woodworker and an apple farmer. In fact, he had an apple orchard on our property. The thought of an apple orchard brought to mind a memoir poem that I wrote about my maternal grandparents and the apples that grew in their yard.
APPLES
We tasted the green apples of summer,
watched the season pass through Dzidzi’s garden,
shared its bounty.
Now we help harvest the autumn apples.
Dzidzi places two large baskets beneath the tree.
He stands on a ladder and reaches for the highest apples.
We stand on wooden crates and pick apples
from the bottom branches
and salvage what we can from the ground.
In one basket we place the best apples we pick,
the eating apples, the perfect ones.
We fill the other basket with cooking apples—
the ones with brown spots and bruises
that Babci will cook into thick applesauce,
the ones she will bake in fat apple pies
steaming clouds of cinnamon spice,
the ones she will make perfect again.
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The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Random Noodling this week.
12 Comments on APPLES--A Memoir Poem, last added: 9/25/2012
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The grounds are gorgeous! Is it still in MA or are you moving farther afield? I wish you all the best!
Diane,
Thanks! We have three-and-a-half acres. That means lots of upkeep. We have to get a ride-on mower.
The house is in Massachusetts--about a twenty-five-minute drive from the house where we're living now. My husband and I haven't moved in yet. We haven't put our house on the market yet because we want to do a few things to our in-law apartment, which had been very well cared for and is in excellent condition. We plan to tear out the wall-to-wall carpeting and put in some built-in bookcases. I don't know where I'm going to put all my children's books! I'll certainly miss the library that I built in my basement several years ago.
Julia will have so much fun running around your 3 acres--and having all of you right there, together. Congratulations!
I love your apple poem--what a great tribute to Dzidzi and Babci!
Janet,
Although I'm sad about leaving the house where I have lived for thirty-six years...and my library--I know this is the best thing for all of us. I can't wait to see how beautiful "the farm" is in autumn.
P.S. My daughter's Yellow Lab Jack has been having a grand time swimming in the pool. He spends half the day there!
Oh, this poem is glorious. I love the quiet images, the separation of apples...both perfect in their own way. We, too, love apples here - and we usually make lots of cider each autumn.
Congrats on your great summer and new home. How beautiful and wonderful that you will all be near each other - and what a beautiful place!
See you at NCTE?
xo,
a.
The poem is as beautiful as the photos! I esepcially like the last part, describing the dishes that will be created - probably because I make all those, too!
I especially like the ending of your lovely poem, too! I'm sure it will be hard leaving your beautiful old home, but congrats on the beautiful new home.
The new home sounds gorgeous -- the grounds certainly are. How wonderful for Julia to have her grandparents so near by all the time growing up! Someday she'll write poems about you, just like your beautiful poems about Babci and Dzidzi.
You're killing me with those fat apple pies :9!
It's so nice to hear from you & how your life is going, Elaine. I hear that you will be sad to leave your wonderful home, but where you are going sounds & looks gorgeous too, & to be right there with family, especially Julia, is nice. I will be moving sometime to be nearer my daughter & the granddaughters. I know it will be easier on us all & such fun. Best wishes to you all in your transition. I love your poem about your grandparents, and love apples. You've captured so many of the motions that are important, including the cooking of those wonderful fruits. I can just see a painting of the scene. Thanks.
Lucky you, to find a way to all be together in such a beautiful setting!
Beautiful! And how wonderful to have your family all living together!
I'm so happy for you. The property took my breath away! Many congrats!