Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Crab apple thief
















Young blackbird, breast still thrush-speckled, drunk on bletted crab apples.

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Posted by at 10:22 pm
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12 comments:

Dale said...

Love the pictures, and especially love being introduced to "blet," a word I never knew! apparently related to French "blesser." I wish I knew enough to know whether fr. "blesser" and eng. "bleed" are actually related -- I suspect they are; both of Germanic origin... anywayI love it when words drift apart and then come together again like that. They yearn for each other, in their separate languages. Wounded fruit.

10:51 pm
Zhoen said...

"Thief" is unfair. It's all there for the eating.

2:52 am
The Crow said...

A beautiful, joy-giving set of photos, Lucy. Thank you!

3:30 am
Lucy said...

Thanks.

I particularly associate 'bletted' with medlar fruit. There's a medlar tree overhanging a low wall in a place I drive through, the squashy fruits are falling on the ground now, and I keep meaning to stop and pick up one or two to see what they're like, but it's an awkward place to stop and I'm afraid the people might object to my thievery!

Of which, no, they are not really thieves; I know the birds were about in numbers but wondered what they were eating in the snow, as they weren't coming to the house with the smaller ones for food. So I was glad to see they were enjoying the crab tree. Last year I made buckets of jelly with the fruit but it made no impression at all, there's so much. But 'Strawberry Thief' is a William Morris pattern, which I think I've posted about here a long time ago. He loved the thrushes that stole all his strawberries so much that he couldn't bring himself to deter them. And there is something about the wicked glee these birds have when they find a good source of fruit to raid, that makes them seem like merry thieves even when they aren't!

7:18 am
Fire Bird said...

gotta eat what you can, this weather...

3:19 pm
Unknown said...

I enjoyed these phtographs which mirror but excell some which I was taking the other day of blackbirds in a rowan. A season when such nourishment is clearly needed.

4:45 pm
tristan said...

i'll bet he ain't got no music license, neither ...

7:17 pm
Bee said...

I just heard the word "bletted" for the first time last week -- in association with medlars, as you mention in your comment. (from the Guardian gardening column)

I have a few bletted crab apples still clinging to the tree, too, but I'm amazed that you have such a profusion of them! They look more like cherries in this picture.
The last bits of autumn were "caught" by the snow and it has created all sort of interesting contrasts -- like these wonderful pictures.

12:56 am
herhimnbryn said...

Crab Apple Snow or Crab Apple Pavlova....

3:36 pm
Jen said...

What wonderfully striking photos - and of course I'm delighted to have discovered a new word too! There's always treasure here :0)

9:31 am
Rouchswalwe said...

... or a pilot's license either ...

1:33 am
Dick said...

If you scroll down fast, the pics run like a tiny movie.

11:54 pm

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