Gorgeous grapes

The grapes are gorgeous. The vines, heavy laden--make me wish I was an artist. They seem to be begging for someone to sketch or paint them, capture their glory and promise. G planted these two 5,6,7? years ago. For many seasons, they did not produce any fruit to speak of. Whether it was due to age/ maturity or generous rounds of ditch water, suddenly last year they went crazy. (We still have raisins from the 2009 crop! ... And speaking of, that was a strenuous undertaking, all those tiny guys plucked off the bunch and carefully arranged in trays, even though the results were very tasty.) G thinks cold weather killed one of the vines back to the root stock. [Interesting, huh? I don't understand any of it, except in the most general sense. Grafting. Yikes!] So far, the wildlife in the yard hasn't done them much damage. Not to be cynical, but the sparrows and finches seem to be focusing on the apples. You know, a peck or two from each. Just enough to spoil most of them. We console ourselves by imagining that they are wormy and still bitter. If it keeps them out of the grapes, I suppose we'll count ourselves lucky! grin.

The vines themselves are so enthusiastic, we are starting to consider how to create more robust structures for them to scale. As you can see, they are starting to trail along the ground out of desperation.