I love autumn. I love apples in autumn. I love their crunchy crisp freshness. Apples I can forgo for most of the year but, in autumn, apples stop me dead in my tracks: just as they did today.It was a brisk morning, made brisker by the first snow on the North Shore Mountains. I was making my way down Lonsdale from 15th to 11th, from one client to another. I was fully enjoying autumn on my walk: the peek-a-boo snow on the Lions, the warm morning sun, the crisp autumn air, the turning leaves, the purple of my T-shirt and the purples and browns threaded through my decorative scarf. Ah! So much about autumn is good. I didn't expect the moment to get any better than this.
My eye fell on the crisp green of the Golden Delicious apples. This isn't the tart green of the Granny Smiths that set my teeth on edge. No, this is the green that declares crunchy eat me now perfection, before the yellow-gold hues, for which the apples are named, arrive. At this time of apple perfection, the Golden Delicious outweighs the Gala apple for curbside appeal.
I picked up six, paid by respects to Anna, the fresh produce proprietor, parted with $1.51 and went on my autumnal way. Once home, I arranged the remaining five with the two home-grown backyard apples from a colleague. The butternut squash worked well in the bowl to display the apples. It was pretty enough for a picture.
As the apples are eaten, the butternut squash is uncovered and soon it will be a hot autumn soup served with olive bread or perhaps a sourdough. Ah! Did I say I love autumn?
