{"id":2196,"date":"2019-12-20T07:27:50","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T14:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/?p=2196"},"modified":"2024-04-22T02:46:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T02:46:10","slug":"the-apple-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/2019\/12\/20\/the-apple-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"The apple tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/four-red-apples-3380075-cropped.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/four-red-apples-3380075-cropped-1024x781.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"629\" height=\"480\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2197\" \/><\/a><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>The apple tree<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The old apple tree grew in my back yard<br \/>\nmany years before I was born<br \/>\nit was alive with color and apples<\/p>\n<p>The apple tree I knew did not bear fruit<br \/>\nit was old, rough, weathered, scraggly<br \/>\nthe grooves in its bark displayed the years it had experienced<\/p>\n<p>My dog, Conan, used the tree to scratch his back<br \/>\nChildren once climbed on it<br \/>\ngrabbing the fruit from its branches<\/p>\n<p>I used it for target practice<br \/>\nBBs struck paper targets and embedded themselves into its trunk<br \/>\ntin cans were lined on thick limbs, shot off by a keen eye<\/p>\n<p>When I was nine, my mother said the tree still had life in it<br \/>\nShe cut the dead limbs, provided extra water<br \/>\nand tended to it every day <\/p>\n<p>In the fall, the tree did not let us down<br \/>\ncrispy, tart, juicy apples, slightly bigger than a golf ball<br \/>\nhung from the old tree&#8217;s branches<\/p>\n<p>Was it a 20 ounce? Not big enough<br \/>\ntoo tart for a Cortland<br \/>\nit looked like an Empire, tasted like it, too<\/p>\n<p>It didn&#8217;t matter<br \/>\nit was a genuine New York apple<br \/>\nthat was enough for all of us<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34,154,257,284],"class_list":["post-2196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-apples","tag-fruit","tag-new-york","tag-poem"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3720,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions\/3720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}