Best Wishes for 2011

Happy new year and thanks to my readers!

2010 was a rough year for apples, as many had feared, with unusual and adverse weather.

It is impossible to know whether or to what extent these conditions are a side effect of the steady growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of our planet.

I expected things to slow down this year and that new varieties would be hard to find. To my surprise I wrote 104 posts in 2010, the same as in 2009, and had many great apples to taste and write about for the first time.

I could never have gotten here without readers, whose presence in comments and emails and links to this blog (and other contributions) keep me focused and motivated. Thank you!

The blog hit several milestones this year, adding my 100th apple review to the opinionated catalog in September.

I also also made things easier to find here with such refinements as a visual index and seasonal guide, available via the tabs at the top of the page.

These and other ideas had been in the works since 2009, so bringing them to fruition last summer after nearly a year felt like a real accomplishment.

I have no such master plan for 2011, though another bell or whistle is always possible.

I do not know what the next year will bring, but right now I feel free of the need to post as frequently as I have, especially off-season.

I've got a few projects and ideas in mind, but don't be surprised if I am silent for weeks at a time or even longer. This is a seasonal blog at heart.

In prior years I held some apple reviews back for the winter and spring, but Black Oxford was the last apple on my shelf. I stand before you today with a light heart and an empty cupboard.

Very best to you for the new year!

Stalking the Winter Banana: the author, October 2010. Tim Collins photo

 

Bud well, bear well
God send you fare well;
Every sprig and every spray
A bushel of apples next New Year Day.

Worcestershire Wassail (Traditional)