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