Another New Day

Arbitrarily it is the end of a year and the end of a decade. An ancient Roman-based calendar obliges us to consider tomorrow January first as the demarcation of a new year: 2010. For weeks (or months) we will continue to write 2009 on our checks, not ready to give up the old year, not ready to embrace the changing times as the years zoom away from us.

The date marks no change of seasons. We are in the midst of winter and winter will continue into the new year. There is no high holy feast to observe, no pre-calendar pagan rituals harking us back to a holiday mood. There is no reason tomorrow should be anything other than another quotidian sunrise and sunset. Another ordinary day.

Yet offices are closed, tomorrow there will be no post, and everyone goes about today with good wishes and cheerful greetings. The midnight sky will be interrupted by fireworks and dropping pickles, apples, roses, crystal balls.... each timezone will countdown to this one instant, this thin line between two ordinary days on a calendar, a separation between old and new.

We go about with Hope brimming over, Expectations and Good Intentions leading our way...This year we will do better. This is the year. Everything will be different this year. Are we deluding ourselves? I don't think so. Somehow, even though it is just another ordinary day it is still a day of promise.

Anne of Green Gables says "Tomorrow is always new with no mistakes in it -- yet." we are never more aware of this truth than at the new year. Tomorrow the whole year will be New, with no mistakes in it -- yet. Despite our best intentions the coming year will fill up with mistakes big and small. But for right now it lies ahead of us level and clean like the blanket of new fallen snow outside my window. What tracks we will make through that unbroken white! For now the expanse lies clean at our feet.... 10...9...8...7...

When morning comes remember, every day begins fresh and new and blank waiting for us to make something of it. Will it be a holiday? Will it be a day when we wish each other well? Will it be a day when we spread a message of Hope? We get to choose -- all year long.

Ashmead's Kernel

The twelfth and final apple of Christmas is the ancient Ashmead's Kernel. My sister says, "This is the only brown apple you should eat, all the others taste like cheese." She then proceeded to nibble away like a mouse with.... never mind.

Although this russet had the strongest "cheese" smell before it was sliced it had a lovely non-cheesy tart flavor. Sprightly with a nice edge to it. It's a great eating apple. We think it would also make a good cider apple for those who like their cider to turn a bit hard. Which means Ashmeade's Kernel also makes the list of those trees waiting to be transplanted from my wish list into reality. Our apple had a very nice form too. Sorry about the blurred photo but you get the idea.

Baldwin

The Baldwin, our eleventh apple has a nice tartness to it. The pretty shape and colour with bright white flesh make this an apple that is as fun to look at as it is to eat. It was ranked as "better than a Red Delicious." We are a bit scornful of the omnipresent Red Delicious however, so that's not so high a praise as you might think. Still it is a good apple and deserves a place in the fantasy orchard (which is now well over 100 imaginary acres, BTW).

Golden Russet

When my sister refers to "the apple Cheez-it" this is the apple she means. The Golden Russet hints at a cheese scent and she is now firmly convinced that all brown skinned apples will smell like cheese.

I thought it was more of an alfalfa aroma, rather like the smell of rabbit feed.

I'll wait while you laugh.

The Golden Russet has a lovely pear texture and an inoffensive flavor which actually put me very much in mind of Asian apples and pears. And it has an adorable shape.

Newtown Pippin

No, the apple isn't fuzzy. Sorry for the blurred photo but don't let it prejudice you the photo might be bad but the apple is great. The Newtown Pippin was an all around favorite. Juicy, and firm, and spunky, and flowery. It seems to store quite well and we thought it would be good for ciders, pies, sauces, and eating fresh. This pippin is on the list of favorites waiting to make the move from fantasy orchard to real orchard.

Calville Blanc

This apple, the Calville Blanc would work well in sauce or cider. It is mildly acidic. The aroma reminded me of yellow tomatoes. Evidently, I am told, there must be something wrong with my nose because that wasn't it at all. We found the flesh of our apple to be a certain sort of grainy, quite probably from age, and suspect that this apple does not store well.

Scheduled Posts continue tomorrow with another lovely Old-Fashioned Apple for the 12 days of Christmas.

Northern Spy

Thin-skinned with a crisp flesh and nice tartness the Northern Spy is a very pretty apple with a spunky flavor. We think it would probably also be a good baking apple, holding together well in pies, but we like it as an eating apple. The lovely acidity suggested lemon hints.

My sister says: "So far the little red apples are winning. Normally I like green apples. You're writing that down? You're so strange."