An apple for the first day of school!  This is an apple from my son's tree.  He wanted fruit trees for his birthday a year ago, and he received two, one of which was a red delicious.  When he picked this one this summer he thought it was pretty enough to paint.  I mumbled something about not having time and planning to do other things, so I put it in the refrigerator.  But it came out again, by my own hand; I wanted to do a small pastel to get used to them again.  (After illustrating the book, I am not as familiar with my most familiar mediums!)  Well, this apple emerged, and I have to say it has a partially prosthetic bottom.  It was a funny-shaped apple, and I thought painting the odd shape would take away from the pattern of the leaves, my favorite part.  I filled in the missing apple flesh with a kneaded eraser so it would stand up.