This is a catch up blog from July - been traveling too much to keep up to date.

Photo is of Lloyd Cassidy (Northern California Territory Manager) picking tree ripened peaches (and apricots and nectarines) to make home made peach ice cream for our office potluck.  FYI - we only hire people who can cooke (pun intended).

This budwood orchard is one of several around the nursery.  Right next to the main office is the large Research Orchard where we can find fresh fruit from May through November.  It is a nice extra perk for those of us who like fresh fruit.

All combined, we have over 47 acres of budwood/scion wood orchards.  There are over 26,000 records of trees, shrubs and vines that we individually track and maintain.  This is a huge expense that we feel necessary to assure trees are true to name and where applicable, virus certified.

Tomorrow I will follow up with a story about our Honduran interns' first experience with home made ice cream.

It is said "a photo is worth a thousand words".  That is a good thing because I don't have time to write a thousand words and you probably don't want to read that much either.

This blog is centered around photos.  I love photography.  Or more accurately, I love being where I can take photos.  God is a marvelous creator and seeing His handiwork whether in nature or in people is a joy.  I capture images to share with others: of things, people or events that attract my eye. Whether I have time to process and finish all the raw digital photos I take is another matter entirely.

This blog will be narrower in scope - centered around the life and products of the L.E. Cooke Co.  After all, I spend more than half my life here and walking the scion wood orchards and production fields is a welcomed break from the paperwork that seems to cascade onto my desk.

So why take the time to write this blog?

Most of us in our industry are visual people.  We love beauty and the creative spirit in each of us wants to enhance the landscapes of the world around us.  I am hoping that the images I show can inspire and educate.  The work you do in making this a better world might just be enhanced by what you see and read here.

So if you like visual images, come back here often.  Or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed or Twitter so you are notified when new posts are made.  This will not be a daily posting.  In fact with road travel and peak seasons I will likely miss weeks at a time and then catch up in a flurry of new postings.

I hope you enjoy.  I welcome your comments.

Ron Ludekens