Every summer we look at the grapes on the champagne grape vine and wonder if they will ripen this year. Most years cool, autumn weather sets in before the grapes ripen. This year looks promising. Maybe this year we will be able to enjoy ripe champagne grapes. In the ten years we have been here, the grapes have ripened only once.

Even if the grapes don’t ripen, the apples will. This year it looks like they will ripen early, along with the plums.

There is so much beauty in fruit before it ripens. From the blooming flowers to budding fruit to ripening fruit, there is so much to enjoy. When you watch fruit go from flower to ripened fruit, you are very aware of all the effort it made growing into an apple or plum or grape. You can then take that apple and congratulate it for working so hard to provide you the pleasure of having something delicious to eat.