Friday, August 31, 2007
Census
Have now conducted a census of the apple trees which are all on the same M26 dwarfing stock and which all seem to produce orange-red/yellow-green apples. So, clockwise from the back left, using the rather dodgy records that I have so far...
1. Laxton Superb. Sraggley tree. Heavy set. Heart shaped. Apples up to three inches deep and 2.5 inches across but mostly much smaller.
2. Cox's orange pippin. Straggley tree. Light set. Torus shaped. Sample in good condition but well off ripe. Good flavour if taken slowly.
3. Lord Lambourne. Light set. Torus shaped. Rather small apples.
4. Elison orange. Poor set. Heart shaped - which is not the shape I remember these ones. Got the wrong name? 2 inches deep. Windfall sample in good condition but well off ripe, whatever it is. Good flavour if taken slowly.
5. Discovery. Tall tree. Poor set. None left.
6. Blenheim orange. Big strong tree although a bit straggley. Good set with large torus shaped apples. Far away the biggest apples of the set.
7. James Greive. Tree sickly ever since it lost its main shoot to the frost in its first winter. Poor set. None left.
Also inspected the nut trees. I think there was a poor set there but I couldn't see anything today. Maybe the squirrel has discovered them. My neighbouring allotment keeper tells me he stopped bothering with nuts as the squirrels took the lot. I had hoped that the trees not being in a wood or part of a tree line might have got away with it but maybe not.
And the Jerusalem artichokes of which five out of the six gift plants have survived. Maybe we get to have some artichokes next year. Seems best to let them be and generate this year.
But what is it about us English that we make so much fuss about the tenth anniverary of the death in a drink driving accident of a dim blonde divorcee with poor judgement in friends and with an unbringing which, in relationship terms, would not disgrace a bog standard estate? Is it really a back-handed way for the great unwashed to take a swipe at the royals? What is it about the royals that they so misjudge the handling of the whole business? Pleased to see that a columnist in yesterday's Daily Mirror takes the same sort of line - I had thought that the Daily Mirror was a pack leader in the maukish stakes. It is certainly a rather shabby paper compared with the Sun which somehow manages to make its smut and tittle-tattle sparkle a bit more.
1. Laxton Superb. Sraggley tree. Heavy set. Heart shaped. Apples up to three inches deep and 2.5 inches across but mostly much smaller.
2. Cox's orange pippin. Straggley tree. Light set. Torus shaped. Sample in good condition but well off ripe. Good flavour if taken slowly.
3. Lord Lambourne. Light set. Torus shaped. Rather small apples.
4. Elison orange. Poor set. Heart shaped - which is not the shape I remember these ones. Got the wrong name? 2 inches deep. Windfall sample in good condition but well off ripe, whatever it is. Good flavour if taken slowly.
5. Discovery. Tall tree. Poor set. None left.
6. Blenheim orange. Big strong tree although a bit straggley. Good set with large torus shaped apples. Far away the biggest apples of the set.
7. James Greive. Tree sickly ever since it lost its main shoot to the frost in its first winter. Poor set. None left.
Also inspected the nut trees. I think there was a poor set there but I couldn't see anything today. Maybe the squirrel has discovered them. My neighbouring allotment keeper tells me he stopped bothering with nuts as the squirrels took the lot. I had hoped that the trees not being in a wood or part of a tree line might have got away with it but maybe not.
And the Jerusalem artichokes of which five out of the six gift plants have survived. Maybe we get to have some artichokes next year. Seems best to let them be and generate this year.
But what is it about us English that we make so much fuss about the tenth anniverary of the death in a drink driving accident of a dim blonde divorcee with poor judgement in friends and with an unbringing which, in relationship terms, would not disgrace a bog standard estate? Is it really a back-handed way for the great unwashed to take a swipe at the royals? What is it about the royals that they so misjudge the handling of the whole business? Pleased to see that a columnist in yesterday's Daily Mirror takes the same sort of line - I had thought that the Daily Mirror was a pack leader in the maukish stakes. It is certainly a rather shabby paper compared with the Sun which somehow manages to make its smut and tittle-tattle sparkle a bit more.
# posted by Jim @ 8:09 AM 
