These are images of an orchard taken through the cycle of the seasons. The orchard is Lost Valley Orchard, located in Kandiyohi County southwest of Paynesville, Minnesota. I was attracted to this orchard because of its unique landscape of small, rolling hills.

The purpose of my first visit to this orchard was to buy apples. I simply followed a sign on the highway that pointed me down a back road. That took me up and down small, steep hills and back into a lovely wooded area that seemed radically different from the surrounding prairie. What I found was an old farmstead that was planted with apple trees years ago by a teacher (the son of the original owners) and his wife who spent summers tending the trees. The owners, Bill and Arlene Wilson, were retired, but worked very hard on their fertile and beloved plot of land.

Because of the aging and the recent deaths of my parents, I have become more sensitive to the subjects of change, time, and mortality. These trees have become metaphors for these processes through the cycle of budding, fertility, decline, and finally a kind of death in winter. Another reason that I am attracted to this subject is that in their stature, gesture and movement these trees seem like figures to me. Some are youthful and supple, and others are mature and grand, their branches weighed down by their sweet load of apples. As these trees age, they still bear fruit, but need supports almost like crutches to support them. As I look at other countries in the world that cannot feed their people because of war, drought and overpopulation, the bounty and the beauty of this orchard seems even more wondrous.

I want to express my gratitude to the Wilsons, who gerously shared their orchard with me.

 
 
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