Apple Blossom Time
One of my favorite parts about
Spring, is apple blossom time.
Those pretty pink and white flowers
on the trees along side our home, were always a true sight to see in spring and
they made springtime that much more enjoyable for me.
There's much more to them blooms than
their beauty, they serve an important purpose; a purpose that impacts fruit
production on the trees.
In order for those beautiful and good
smelling blossoms to become juicy good tasting fruit, they need to pollinate.
Some variety of apples can self
pollinate, while others need to cross pollinate with other varieties to make
their fruit taste its best.
Course at my young age, I'd never
learned all of this about apple trees, I could only marvel at their beauty.
Thanks to my father who managed our
orchard, and other elder's of the family that taught me about apple trees
and their reproduction I was able to learn a lot from them.
As inspiring as all this was to me
about apple blossoms in the Spring, yet there was another factor I
discovered equal to it.
You see apple trees bloom about the
same time Robin birds start building their nest in the Spring.
The beauty of the blossoming apple
tree and its wondrous aroma smell, seem to be a perfect match for
their home selection.
The Robbins are clever at picking
just the right tree's to do that, so they want be intruded on by
inquisitive people like me.
But one year I
managed to spy on them at a distance and watch how they build their home.
To my surprise
they're very adapt at what they do, instead of brick and mortar like we use to
build our homes, they use mud and straw.
That reminded me of
the story in the Bible about the Egyptians who used Israel for making brick
with mud and straw to build their homes
The Mother Robin as she built her
nest , would twist round and round after each addition to conform it to fit her
body.
Within a day she was able
to complete her new home, " I was impressed with the speed she worked
at."
After her home was completed
she laid her eggs.
The eggs began hatching , by
the time the Apple blossoms started falling from the trees, her new family was
ready to take flight into a new and exciting world by then .
Truly amazing for me to get to see
the apple tree preform its beauty of reproduction, and the Robin
its.
And best of all, to see the hand of
God revealed in all of it.
Coleman Schell
