Our orchard and the fruits thereof bring me great delight each year. I love checking the trees once a week once the first buds begin to appear in the spring. One year I was so excited I think I even photographed growth progress once every couple of weeks.
It seems to take forever for spring to come and yet, here it is, almost June and the longest day of the year will be upon us and the the light starts waning already. How can that be? We've had but two days of temperatures over 69 so far.
But cool is okay as long as there is sunshine. Once the sun starts shining, I feel despondence creeping back when the cloud cover returns for a day or two. I am so afraid the spring will be gray and cloudy, too, once again as it has been the past three springs.
I put up with the long gray winters because I know that is how it is here in the Islands in the winter. But once spring arrives, the sun is supposed to stay put! Someone needs to inform its Royal Majesty of the rules!
The critters love my orchard as the fruit starts to ripen...especially the raccoons, squirrels and woodpeckers! The squirrels and raccoons have devastated my plum crop three years in a row. The woodpeckers prefer the apples.
I was told by one long-time islander that he was recently informed (about four years ago) that the way to keep the critters out of the orchard was to play non-stop LOUD rock'n roll music beginning a couple of weeks before you expect the crop to ripen. I'm not terribly excited about the idea....but, then again, I don't want the limbs of my plum try broken once again by the weight of those greedy raccoons!
For several years I have caught a glimpse of a Pileated Woodpecker in the orchard pecking away at an apple. They never seem to consume the whole apple. They just drill a hole in them.
Unfortunately, I don't always have my camera with me when working in the orchard. What a waste of opportunity!
I've always wished I could catch both woodpeckers at the same time within camera range so that I could get a photo of the pair of them in one frame.
But usually one was in the orchard and the other on a near-by dead tree in the forest.
Then one day last summer I got lucky. I was in the house and spied one on the ground in the driveway and ran and got my camera. By the time I got back to the window, there were TWO woodpeckers on the ground.
They were both on the ground at the same time in an OPEN area at the edge of the driveway! Fortunately I could catch them from the dining room window.
I was ecstatic. I don't have a professional camera so I couldn't catch their detail in full glory, but now I have my photo of the pair of them.
At first they were not close enough together for me to get a large image of both of them at once. In the above photo, I just barely caught the red top knot of the one closest to the window.
But as they moved about the driveway, I was able to get better angles on them.
And finally I was able to get them both in the photo with the flags at the same time! Another nice touch of red.
I'll leave you on another peaceful note.....
