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Cider Snakebite

from Fish House Blues by Daniel Shaw

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apples in the ancient abandoned orchard that our garden abuts, we went scrumping. My wife was bitten by an unseen snake on her ankle which gave a name to the excellent brew they created for us to try. There may be lots of rare hybrid apples still there- I don’t recognise any of them. Most are sour cider apples. A few months later we noticed a monster slithering over the path from our garden back into the orchard a grass snake well over a metre. The bite swelled up and was painful so it may have been an adder. I came home one day to find my studio in disarray as an adder had crawled in – everything had been pulled away from the walls to catch it in a dustpan.

The apples fall and rot late into the year. Don’t eat fizzy apples.

As well as reptiles, we have had found smooth newts in the kitchen. We are visited by a family of Roe deer most days as well as barn owls, tawny owls and a little owl. We get lots of voles and pigmy shrews. Cockchafers, hornets, wild black bees and great diving beetles land on our garden furniture.

lyrics

Apples drop in the orchard, thumping to the ground.
They choose their time and make their own sound.
If you’ve tasted it, then you really know:
Never gather apples, fallen in the snow.

Tiny reds on one limb, Golden globes on the other side.
Gnarly lichen branches bent low and wide.
Scrumping through the garden gate, brambles and snakes
Dropping fruit that rots till the wasps awake.

Lying in the Summer hay
Fizzing and fermenting till
The cold embrace of snow comes
And makes nature still.

credits

from Fish House Blues, released April 20, 2021

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Daniel Shaw Glastonbury, UK

Daniel Shaw based in Glastonbury & S.W.area.
Past work includes performances with the poet Laureate, Simon Armitage; & performances in Europe, Tennessee, Kolkatta and the Uk.
Daniel has also performed and recorded with the The Aardvarks, double bass & Bass with Mossflower, The Minor Works Unit, Mr Keep Calm & The Cancelled Cheques, The Blackdown Bluebirds andThe Duncan Batey Trio. ... more

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