Half way down the stairs

The Dittisham plums picked two nights ago made it to a bowl which somehow was left on the stairs. Regular readers fear not, this isn’t the prelude to the latest in a long line of unlikely comedic happenings. It was perfectly happy accident. Everytime one of us walked past it we had to mention the smell. It was like cognac warming gently on the oven. Heady, heavy, alcoholic as well as fruity. It slowed you down to enjoy it.

I can hardly being myself to eat them. Fortunately my stomach is stronger than my mind. They’re delicious.

The powder white bloom that coats them so satisfyingly is even more beautiful close up – a little history of the rubbing against its neighbour as it ripens, the picker’s hands, the basket it’s dropped into, and being moved into the bowl it sits in on the stairs.

I’ll often sit with a single malt for half an hour before I start to drink it, the smell is enough. Last night it’s this apple, the Beauty of Bath, I’m smelling instead. I tried a windfall a few weeks ago, and if I’d have finished it I’d have ended up with teeth like a witchdoctor’s necklace. Three weeks later and the rest are ripe. They fall into your hand from the tree. It smells and tastes like no other apple I’ve had.

  • Even without the taste, the looks or the scent, the names do it for me. Dittisham sounds so much more enticing than plain old Victoria. Maybe it's just the contempt bred by familiarity but on name alone would one choose Braeburn or Beauty of Bath ?

  • I had a good time last autumn wandering around in Wisley orchard trying the windfalls. My favourite was one called Bascombe mystery which had all that I required in an apple, it was such a fine flavour.

    On the other hand, I eat absolutely hundreds of braeburns a year, I'm not knocking them, they store well and they taste good with a chocolate bar.

  • I think Google has got to be clear about how Google+ fits in with all its other product offerings when/if it does start to support non-human entites. The webpage you’ve laid out (incredibly great) is extremely much like Google Places within its Maps product. I’m sure this is the internal dilemma Google has as to how Google+ will roll this out for businesses and how this will merge with Places.

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