Something Scary: Visit to the Apple Farm

Today, we spent the morning apple picking at Lyman Orchards in Middlefield, Connecticut. I started by taking pictures of the apples on the trees, the orchard views, and the changing leaves. The photos were pretty, but all exactly the same as those I took while apple picking two years ago.

With the "Something Scary" theme in mind, I started looking for a different angle.  As it turns out, that angle was down. 

Beneath the tree lies a tableau that should be titled, "Live cycle of a fruit: A still life and death." There, some of the fruit is perfectly ripe, has just reached the heaviness that snaps the stem from the branch--perhaps it fell when someone reached for the other perfect pick. 

But the space beneath the tree is a graveyard. There, the fruit begins to rot. Some apples have completely disintegrated, coating blades of grass with residual mush. Others decay more slowly, a process that leaves behind deep, brown cavities where ants feast and flies breed. 

There is beauty in the grotesque. Life inside of death. Life from death.

This year's rotten fruit becomes next year's crop.

Happy Friday! This week, look at something from a different angle.