Cone-trained tree and distaff

Meaning

Lemma with two senses.

The same noun has two local senses. Outside the inn, plural quenouilles are fruit trees trained to tapering cone shapes, their tips visible over the garden wall. Inside, the grandmother’s literal quenouille is the distaff held while she spins. The English deliberately separates “cone-trained fruit trees” from “distaff”; treating both as reeds, tools or trees would erase the wordplay of shapes and work.