Will Rea

Happy #appleday, everyone.

eBay users! Don't ignore today's email, even though it looks like a boring standard update to the User Privacy Notice. They want to use your data to train AI models. If you click the link over the words "the right to object", it takes you to a page with a toggle button letting you opt out.

walbridge apples, painted by mary daisy arnold, 1914

Wrote about the decline and fall of SCOTUSblog, which used to be the single best resource for Supreme Court stuff, and (thanks to some intervening crimes committed by its co-founder) is now a weird platform for conservative pundits to talk about what a good job the conservative justices are doing

New arrival, it’s not Löschnig’s from the early 1900s, but it’ll do.

Pink Punch, Pink Asuko, and Egremont Russet from the farmers market

Santa Rosa bound.

More books, featuring the cheapest copy of Perry Pears I’ve ever seen.

Not to brag, but ... we snagged a couple of passes to today’s Apple event. Stay tuned for our take on all the latest and greatest Apple products.

Old postcard from eBay. Obligatory tagging of @barmas.bsky.social

Do you have Red Astrachan apples? Can you share photos (and location)? There are two distinct phenotypes and I want to know more about their geographical distribution.

Couldn’t resist. Maybe a candidate to get scanned?

Willapa Bay, Washington

Out on Willapa Bay, so obligatory Malus fusca shot

Been buying non English European pomonas lately. This page is this from is Czech, 1935.

This is Loki, our Maine Coon and the cat of our hearts, and he went missing today. We have no idea how he got out, but he’s an elder, indoor cat, the whole region’s in an intense heat wave, and we’re really scared. I doubt I have any followers here in Martinez, CA, but if so, help? It’s SO hot

Photogenic early drops

Revising a classic tonight.

Found out about this book from the latest @ciderreview.bsky.social article. Getting a copy we’ll have to wait…

Thankful to have a pour of this today. @rosscider.bsky.social

Fruitlets @alpenfirecider.bsky.social

Rose? @alpenfirecider.bsky.social a couple weeks back.

Caught the boy deep asleep the other day.

Coauthors and I published a paper on an apple ancestry model: rdcu.be/fnI6j With this model scientists can estimate the wild species ancestry of any apple sample genotyped on the same set of DNA markers. We will be applying the model to a big dataset of >11,000 accessions in our next publication.

Learn in less than 3 minutes! & share this whiteboard animation developed by Maura Gallagher about the basics of apple powdery mildew! youtu.be/Jf-04sLUejA?...

If you see this, post a tree.

Who doesn’t love old trees?

Cellini in bloom

Was trying to find a scanned copy a few years back. Finally got a physical copy from England. Obligatory @barmas.bsky.social tag

The beginning of every fruit. Every flower is potentially one fruit...if someone doesn't come along and pick them of course! However, we wouldn't want every bloom to be pollinated as the tree would be very stressed (as would the orchardist who has to thin the fruit out!)

Enjoying the imports while they last. Banger from @littlepomona.bsky.social

@artistrawcider.bsky.social 2023 Bisquet. Thought I missed out on this at Bauman’s on Oak in Portland, Oregon, USA. Only 4 left.

My one-hour special “Rick Steves Iran: Yesterday and Today,” which helps humanize 90 million Iranian people, is streaming free and ad-free at www.ricksteves.com/watch-iran.

“The Last Game” documentary is now live on YouTube. A documentary 2 years in the making from director Matt Dooley and his amazing team. Watch on YouTube here: youtu.be/8QqwgcL49TU?...

Not funded yet, but we have so many heritage orchards in the islands! Looking forward to participating as this is (hopefully) funded and implemented.

gloriamendoza.houserepublicans.wa.gov/2026/03/05/s...

Jack begins a quest to discover what became of the Cheat Boy perry pear, exploring its past popularity, cultivation, and wondering if it is still to be found in the wild.

New Mac Studio up and running. Much better Lightroom and Photoshop experience. Stacked and blended 3 photos for better focus with the projection lens.

Fellow apple nerds: are there varieties that consistently ripen with white skin (and a pink blush)? I had initially thought this was a Winter Banana, but the genetics don't match (they don't match anything in WSU's database), and it is too white and too soft. Photos from fall 2022

Wild, keeved, Swiss.

Not a single brain cell. My boy, Pippin.

The new cat, Pippin. Pip. Pip, pip, pip it up. Piperoini. (Sometimes with cheese)

I read thousands of pages of Epstein files this weekend trying to understand what he wanted out of his meeting with 4chan's Christopher Poole. Here's everything we know about Epstein's plans to dismantle the internet and, eventually, democracy. www.garbageday.email/p/here-s-how...

OK, so Musk was planning to go to Epstein's island, but it's not like he went there with the intent to go to a wild party or something, it was probably just some business. Excuse me, an email just came in. *Reads:* "What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?"

friend of mine is an undocumented immigrant and has been hiding in Melania theaters bc he knows people assume no one is in there