The cherry tree at The Breach House is loaded with cherries at the moment, reminding us all of the cherry trees at Haggs Farm which Lawrence describes so vividly in Sons and Lovers and his poem Cherry Robbers.
‘There was a great crop of cherries at the farm. The trees at the back of the house, very large and tall, hung thick with scarlet and crimson drops, under the dark leaves.
… The young man, perched insecurely in the slender branches, rocked till he felt slightly drunk, reached down the boughs, where the scarlet beady cherries hung thickly underneath, and tore off handful after handful of the sleek cool-fleshed fruit. Cherries touched his ears and his neck as he stretched forward, their chill finger-tips sending a flash down his blood. All shades of red, from a golden vermilion to a rich crimson, glowed and met his eyes under a darkness of leaves.
Paul Morel having climbed up to pick the cherries, ends up throwing them down at Miriam.
Under the haystack a girl stands laughing at me, With cherries hung round her ears-- Offering me her scarlet fruit: I will see If she has any tears.
from Cherry Robbers
Typical Lawrence – charging nature with eroticism. We’ll never see a cherry in the same way again!