—6F at dawn. Today we celebrate love in the orchard. Love and Apples. The perfect combination!

Cammy has a cloth bag hanging on a chair next to her desk, printed with the quote “Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.” It’s from The Bible’s Song of Solomon. There are a number of translations of the original Hebrew, as you might imagine. Others are less dismissive of Love. The apple becomes regenerative rather than a replacement for unhappiness. For example, “refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.” Or, “refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love.” Or, even more blunt, “refresh me with apples, for I am lovesick.”

Earlier in the Song of Solomon, are the lines,

“Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods,
So is my beloved among the sons.
I sat down in his shade with great delight,
And his fruit was sweet to my taste.”

These lines remind me of my favorite apple song.“The Burial Waltz" by the Fugs, recorded in 1968.

“Do not surround me with wreathes of flowers
Nor place upon my body the signs of a fetish
Nor crescent, cross, phallus or sun
But bury me in an apple orchard
That I may touch your lips again.
Look at me when you glance
At the spring apple flower
Speak of me into a breeze
Blowing over your fingers
Taste of me when your lips taste the froth
Foaming out of the apple meat.”

Our relationship with the apple trees could be described as bizarre. They are definitely strange creatures, so different from us. Or, maybe we’re the strange creatures, not them. But when we create relationships based on acceptance, trust and, yes, love, I think we’re headed in the right direction, no matter how bizarre. Love and apples. Happy Valentine’s Day.