not this year

Cold and clear. I saw a couple of squirrels heading to the crabapple tree out front at work the other day. In years past the dried fruit has been a source of sustenance for them at this time of year, but not this year. There isn't any dried fruit because the tree basically produced nothing this year. I remember back in May, there were plenty of beautiful blossoms on the tree, but no honeybees. I asked the old woodchuck, Doug Blodgett, if honeybees are in trouble, and he said that all bees are badly stressed. They don't know exactly why. I remember seeing the tracks of deer in the snow under the crabapple tree in previous years when dried crapples were also a part of their diet. This year none of that exists. The squirrels looked puzzled as well. They were just sitting in the tree, looking off into space, just scratching themselves