When you see the Tree, you understand right away that this is the Mother Tree of All Apples.
A farmhouse, now long gone, once stood here. Nothing remains but a pile of old foundation stones.
But the Three Springs still bubble from the creek-bed, and feral apple trees fill the Secret Valley.
The Mother Tree is oldest, and biggest, of them all.
Orchard trees are pruned, bred low for easy picking. This tree has known neither pruning saw, nor the shade of other trees. Three with outstretched arms could barely span its girth.
Approach, and understand. Three sister trees—sprung, maybe, from a single apple—have grown up together, merging, in mutual embrace: the Three that are One, the One that is Three. You'd go far to find a better image of the Triple Goddess.
Grazing cows are the Tree's companions now, and deer to eat the fragrant, yellow apples.
Hunters come in the fall, and pilgrims such as myself.
I pour out water from the Springs.
I hymn the Three-in-One, the One-in-Three.
Mother Tree of All Apples.