A parade float of poached pears and plums

It was my first time knowingly poaching something. I boiled a two-to-one ratio of sugar to water and toasted cinnamon sticks, allspice and cloves in the cast iron brasier to release their aromas before cascading the bubbling syrup over them. Slowly stripping each of the fruits of their skin, I floated them on the surface of the warming, glossy lake of cinnamon-infused syrup. The pears stood upright, bobbing like buoys under a sunset glow, while the colour from the plums’ skin seeped into the liquid sugar, colouring it a pale candy apple red.