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November and Decemberby Ken Clark - 08:09 on 16 November 2009I finally found some free time to start the transformation from apples into juice. The eight stone of apples picked, unfortunately have transferred into four stones. This is not a fisherman’s tale of exaggerated weight, but a full sack of apples have sadly gone bad. These were among the most reddish ones that I have ever picked, last year as you cut into the flesh the red veins were well down into the core, sadly these varieties don’t keep as I have found out to my detriment. Good news is that I still managed to extract about five litres of juice, I have added a little yeast and the mixture has a brown frothy look at the moment. It is time to phone a friend for the next stage.
We celebrated the Apple at our last meeting with some lovely apple pie and cream, strangely the bottle of red wine donated by a friend soon disappeared a lot quicker that the bought cider for the event. Maybe its time to start an annual celebration of the grape, anyone interested?
A few apples left on my family apple tree have now finally dropped off and are providing a feast for either wasps or the birds, shells of the apples are all that is left, however it could be some mice that are having an early feast.
A “Coal Tit” has been spotted by June feeding on the seed and peanuts put out regularly by my better half. These tits are the smallest of the tit family and can be recognized by its black cap and white patch on the back of its neck. June is the expert in our family on birds varieties, we are still watching out for the wonderfull site of a flock of Waxwings that stopped by last year to feed on the Cotoneaster berries but as of yet we have had no repeat of the visit this year.
The trees are looking very bare at the moment; however the structure of the trees can now be readily appreciated for their shape and form. Most of the leaves are now decaying rapidly in the cold damp conditions that we are experiencing in the short days of November and December, this decaying of the leaves is also enriching the soil to provide food for the early spring growth, natures very own recycling scheme.
I am still fascinated by the Lichen that seems to grow anywhere it likes. The most common host plants for these lichens are the Hawthorn hedgerows and old Elderberry shrubs. At first I thought this growth was only on certain parts of the Hawthorn but as you get a closer look it is growing on most of the hedgerow length.
The hedges I am on about are near to Wapping Bridge.
Even though my apple juice production didn’t go quite to plan, we have had a successful start to our winter tree planting. Some quite large Scotch Pines have been replanted into the New Lambton Plantation and these have been joined by some English oaks. Sadly some trees in the nursery have become too large to dig up and these will have to succumb to the old chainsaw, however they are few and far between.
It is like the old saying, never put off tomorrow what you can do to-day, never a truer saying existed when it comes to replanting trees.
So let me be the first to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
It will be spring time before you know it.
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