Hi-Vis crab apples

      The crab apple tree in the side garden has, as always, produced an immense crop for such a small tree. Already the birds have discovered the fruit and are setting about the little golden apples with great enthusiasm. The colour of the apples must attract the birds from miles around and even on a dull day in the pouring rain they are so bright that they look as if they have a light bulb in each one so they must be highly visible.
      I remember once as a small boy filling my pockets with crab apples stolen from someone's garden and then setting about eating them down at the end of my parent's garden. After the first hideously sour couple of bites they didn't taste too bad so I ate them all in one mighty feast. As they say on television, 'later that night', there was a traumatic returning and evacuating of crab apples and I've never tried one since.
      The birds seem to enjoy them though, despite the sourness.