Clare's apple

Just discovered in my coat pocket - a wrinkled apple picked from the ground under the apple tree when we visited John Clare's Cottage at Helpston near Peterborough in early November. The idea was to grow our own apple tree which would be descended from one that Clare possibly planted, pruned, harvested from or even sat under to write. He is one of my favourite poets, far more deserving of attention than the 'Northamptonshire Peasant Poet' label suggests.

Now I can stratify and plant out the pips and eventually we might gaze at an apple tree "Where blushing apples round and red/ Load down the boughs and pat the head/ Of longing maid that hither goes/ To hang on lines the drying clothes/ Who views them oft with tempted eye/ And steals one as she passes by" (The Shepherd's Calendar - September. Just need the maid as well!