The other day I was mowing under my apple trees. Some are seedlings grown from pips, thus they are unique varieties; one such which is thickly-leaved and spreading produces pale warm yellow fruit, sweetish and mildly vanilla flavoured: hence my naming it – with approval from the Friends’ Tasting Panel – the School Custard tree.
Well, it was a warm, calm, very quiet afternoon; and that’s a well-hidden corner. So as, later on, I was sunning myself after a restorative swim, a Laurie Lee image came into my head…
21stJuly 2020
Shaded by their favourite, the School Custard tree,
The green boy kissed the green girl –
And she all-glowed, ‘I do like thee!’
…
If Nature wills, come springtime, a family of three:
Because they loved its sun dapple,
Under the School Custard apple tree.
© Christopher Jessop 2020
