I chose apples to divert your eye from the cardinal, which is a blatant bird to say the
least. It is one of my favourite birds, but it is very obvious, so I wanted to give
it some competition with a few spectacular and juicy apples.

These apples were growing on my favourite apple tree in Ontario. This is a unique
tree producing fruit unlike any I have tasted -- sweet, aromatic, crisp, juicy and
almost totally lacking in sourness . . . just to my taste.

All domestic apple trees come from grafting, not seeds. Every McIntosh apple comes
from generations of twigs grafted from one tree on Mr. McIntosh's farm near Toronto.
It was a genetic sport or freak which had great success. My tree is also a genetic
freak, but it will remain forever wild with its unsprayed and blemished fruit. I
am reminded of the lyrics of singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell's song, The Big Yellow
Taxi. . . "give me spots on my apples but leave me the birds and the bees." 
Robert Bateman