I know that’s a strange title for a very innocuous blog post about apple-picking but you’ll see the point when you look at the pictures.

There are few things more enjoyable to do on a sunny late afternoon in September than picking apples on Rosie’s farm, if you like the simple pleasures in life, as my sister Mary and I do. After a nice cup of tea, and catch up with Rosie, we took the dogs, Inca, Malachi and Sasha with us over to the orchard by the original farmhouse: and after sampling the eating apples lower down in the field we wandered up the slope to the Bramleys – the cookers, which we prize above all other apples because we’re thinking of baking apple pies and apple crumbles.

The larger dogs ran around as if they were in Heaven before settling themselves in the shade of the apple trees so that they could best delight in the views on such an evening, while sensible Sasha, the tiny Yorkshire terrier, took it upon herself to guard the apples we had collected into carrier bags.

Soon we were joined by Ian, a nice chap who brought Rosie a file containing information on Internet banking (how incongruous when you’re in an orchard!); and naturally, he tried some of nature’s bounty, and didn’t mind having his photograph taken. Unfortunately, whilst I was photographing everyone I stepped back onto the file which had been left on the grass… I say “unfortunately” because there were some sheep droppings near the same spot… Oh dear!

“Oops, sorry Rosie, I apologised lifting the soiled file, wiping it off and handing it to her.

“Not to worry,” Rosie smiled, “it’s all about ‘Business Telephone Banking’ anyway!”