Why this icon Samuel Stokes planted Himachal's first American apple trees at Kotgarh in 1916. Source: en.wikipedia.org
Pick a Red Delicious where Stokes first planted them, in 1916.
The story
A harvest morning at Kotgarh: an apple tree heavy with red Delicious apples fills the foreground, and beyond it, on a lower terrace, a traveller up an orchard ladder reaches into the next tree, a basket of apples at its foot, the terraced orchards stepping down to the Sutlej under the wooded ridges, two blue magpies flying over and snow peaks standing to the north.
Why this picture
Himachal's apple story began at Kotgarh: in 1916 Samuel Evans Stokes planted the American Delicious here, on terraced slopes some 6,500 ft up above the Sutlej, and the orchards spread across the hills. The terraces are held by dry-stone walls; in September the trees hang red, morning haze fills the valley below, and griffons ride the air over it.
- Kotgarh — Wikipedia
- Satyananda Stokes — Wikipedia
- tourism.webindia123.com
- Red Delicious — Wikipedia
- Himalayan vulture — Wikipedia
- hillpost.in
The sky wears Khovar, from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand.
The motion
Two magpies fly across the whole sky; the river's water lines run; the orchard trees sway; a griffon circles over the valley; the sun's rays turn; the traveller's hand reaches up into the tree and back. A 16-second loop.
Colour
Kotgarh takes Jade #04B495, one of the three Fields colours — with its icon in Steel Grey on it.
