the summer approaches.....you can hear it.....the pitter patter of tiny rain drops on luxuriant greenery

the sun is returning,

mornings are wonderful when the sun gets a chance to rise........may blossom is desperate to emerge and hungry birds wait eagerly for the insect world to put away their umbrellas

road building

I guess all the roads are being rebuilt and new ones being created to give folk jobs and the construction firms lots of dosh....................surely the money could be spent on less destructive projects..whilst still giving employment..........

How is it also that in Barnsley where unemployment is high lots of land is being given over to building warehouses and offices and the employment level remains the same.....

am bit miserable because a young blackbird fell into a water trough whilst trying to drink in my garden...and drowned........I know there is so much beauty in this world but why do I feel so pessimistic about 21st century Britain..

apple wine...with some orange peel thrown in

Devon myth surrounds making excellent cider with an added dead ingredient...a rat at fermentation time...well...this present wine we drink is apple with a dead orange...and it is wine not cider and very nice...maybe wee will dance later in the rain, in the cold....and my word the end of the week sees frost........ahhh I have sown legumes...me always the optimist...when I not suffering the condition of the natural world....any biodiversic-therapists out there

the sun has found us

I cycled from Chesterfield to Barnsley early this morning....tentatively because of potholes, with a mounting excitement as real light began to appear...not the grey despairing colours of late....

train journeys are funny affairs......you can sort out every concern you ever had or have by looking out the window and thinking....
but then a pile of discarded rubbish on the rail side trashes your Zen like tranquility  only for peace to return once gorse and ancient exposed sandstone reappear......wish sun would reappear

the natural world

inspite of the best efforts of man to despoil the natural order of things it is reassuring to see how once man lets go of a piece of land it returns to itself
wish the rain would stop...potato crops will be at risk..as will apple blossom

peterappletree.co.uk

I have a web site and I expect this will launch the wave of apple tree planting fervour.....after all..for beauty...for bees and birds...for sweet fruit and cooking apples too...and to fend off future hardships finding good food...there is every reason for this wonderful land of ours to be resplendent in Laxton Superbs, Lord Lambournes, Arthur Turners and Cox Orange Pippin.....

I have several maiden apple trees and they are all different in nature....let no one say apple trees are all the same.................some are reserved, some forward....some leafy, some covered in flower buds...
please let May arrive soon ...and with it warmth and bursting buds......and time to feed hungry fruitlets

I know we have to live somewhere.....we...the overpopulating species...but there is always an expense.....green ecosystems yield up passively to the yellow of JCBs...and the frontier between barren housing projects and the open space where nature's lung expands and contracts  shifts ever more towards breathlessness

when I was only 11 I fell in love (as only 11 year olds can do) with Cecile, she was visiting England with her family....when she went back to America I climbed a tree and wouldn't come down...for some time...possibly more than ten minutes...I looked for her today and found that she had become a professor of biochemistry researching various proteins which may impact on a number of debilitating human conditions..............she died in 2006 having succumbed to kidney cancer...how crazy is that?

coming full circle...peter appletree

I was once a farmworker's son and I studied botany at University and kept bees and gardened and fell once again in love with nature....then I earned a living as a teacher....now as I approach retirement from a life of struggling with the disenchanted I reach to complete the circle and my dream is to plant apple trees...and in doing so earn myself a little ale money as well as make a contribution to the real world..not the world of cars and dozers and tarmac and people so busy looking into techno screens that the flight of a bumble bee or the courtship dance of a sparrow goes unnoticed....

I have spent the day in part researching the genetics of apple varieties....

easter monday

it's raining,,,,I worry for the apple blossom already unfolded...heavy rain breaks the petals off and the crop is compromised.......
I notice however that many trees are only in the  bud stage...beautiful pinkish/carmine....I hope their journey from bud to fruit is a successful one.
I can't understand why people choose ornamental trees for their garden when fruit trees are available as an alternative..............
If any bloggers out there want an orchard planting in their garden or farm or school....let me know...
it makes so much sense when the price of food is rising crazily and the bees need a helping hand....
and my...how the blossom looks and the perfume fills your head (on a dry warm day)....I hope tomorrow is better than today.....after all it wont be a bank holiday..