Something utterly comforting about orchards, especially old and haphazard ones.  But I never thought of them as a dancing class for trees and like the distinction between the shy apple and the capable cherry.  Blushing peach and glowing apricot, not to mention the plump plum and the fair pear…

‘The orchard was a dancing class for trees. The schoolgirl shyness of the apple trees, the vermilion competence of the cherries … Look at their quadrilles, their retornelli and rondeaux.’

Source: Osip Mandelstam, Journey to Armenia (London: Notting Hill Editions, 2011), p. 90 – reviewed here.

Photo credit: Jill111, pixabay.com