Springing forth

A bud is opening on an apple tree in Lexington, Massachusetts yesterday. ¶ 

Some are reporting apple blossoms, but where I live things are still mostly buttoned up, though that is changing. ¶ 

It's still forsythia and cherries here, though just a few towns farther from the sea the magnolias are in full bloom. The apples cannot be far behind.

I found my budding blossom at the Cotton Farm Recreation Area in Lexington.

The trees are mostly Macouns planted some 40 years ago, but the orchard has not been particularly well cared for recently.

It's a conservation area, not a working farm any more.

An aspirational 2018 Orchard Management Plan proposed to plant and graft a thoughtful assortment of desert, culinary, and cider apples. I didn't see any signs that noble plan had been carried out.

The management plan notes the Macouns from these trees were once sold at nearby Wilson Farm. If the trees produce any fruit today, it is scavenged by critters, human or otherwise.