Best wishes for 2017

Very best wishes from me to you for the year to come.

This has always been a seasonal blog, overflowing with images and ideas in the harvest season but with fewer and more contemplative columns in the winter and spring.

But this year, to my surprise, I stopped writing for four whole months. I didn't plan that. Am I finally running out of steam?

I prefer to think that I am bowing to the rhythms of the season. And those of my own life.

I did manage to add 21 varieties of apples, new to me, to my catalog this year, and write 48 times about the pomacious fruit. That's nearly once a week on average! even if I posted half of my reports in October and November.

Those 21 apples include many from readers who shipped or, in once case, hand-delivered apples from afar. A whole year's gratitude upon you.

In the orchard, winter is the fallow time, the planning time, the time for contemplation. If you find yourself wanting to revisit the harvest, here is my invitation.

I have a list of interesting links, and a page of seasonal ones. I've indexed this blog by topic and organized apples by rating and visually. Most of what I write has a long shelf life. Delve deeper here.

Some of my favorite fruit blogs (included in links above) have, alas, succumbed to their natural life rhythms, but still make great reading. Many cider blogs are going full blast. Happy new year!