ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

GREEN APPLES

Old church yard in Ryde,
no bronze or marble fame.
But a weathered stone
with a humble name.

Maria Ann SMITH
Born in Sussex
Died in 1870.

When I had a shilling
as money for the week
Mrs. Smith’s green apple
was my boyhood treat.

Tart as winter wind,
sweet as clear blue sky,
green as summer grass.
Still my pleasured buy

G/day Neville - I like it!

You have done a bit of research yourself.
Also the best apple to make an apple pie as well - if we're talking the same apple.

Terry

Thanks Terry . Been there Terry, in the little old church yard at St.Anne's at top Ryde in Sydney. I stood there and pondered on Granny Smith. There are a few of the early immigrants buried there.

Beautiful to reflect back on younger times - most kids in UK when I grew up there went scrumping for apples - I remember pinching a whole heap of crab apples one time and they were awful, but Granny Smiths's are still my fave today - in fact the only apple I will eat. I had no idea that Granny Smith was a real person though

Delightful, Neville, and I didn't even know she was there!... In this poem, you've used all the senses really well to capture the image, and you also bring back the memory of the flavour of those apples - I love it!

Ah! Granny Smith! Thanks for the memories!

I'm off shopping - apple pie for dessert tonight!!

Cheers
Shelley

Thanks Maureen. Yes Granny Smith was real enough. She was born in Peasmarsh, Sussex in 1799, just 11 years after Captain Phillip arrived with the fleet of convicts in NSW. She was an immigrant not a convict I believe. She was a botanist in Eastwood in Sydney and developed the beautiful green apples.


Thank you Catherine.

Thank you Shelley. I'll have some of that apple pie !! got a container of custard ready.