Far Lands

Developing our fruit trees has taken a lot of hard work; a lot of digging and carting manure. Then a lot of waiting (3 years) as my first grafted trees grew. This year the cordon line has rewarded us with 5 trees bearing fruit. James Grieve, Katy, Rosemary Russett, Laxton Superb and The Big Purple. Katy had 6 apples and over the weekend we ate one. Our first apple from a grafted fruit tree. A big moment. Delicious! Which left 5 on the tree. This morning I walked past the cordon line to find 2 apples on the ground, the results of a hungry badger. £!&%***!

Last night on NW news there were picture of fly-tipping on a massive scale - whole barns of illegally dumped waste. The problem of course is that we as a society produce too much waste. John Seymour, the guru of self-sufficiency, states that zero waste should be the goal . And that starts when you buy / obtain things in the first place. One good idea is to have multiple bins in the kitchen and few bins elsewhere in the house. That way all rubbish gets sorted the first time it goes into a bin. As the photo shows our rubbish bin (black-bin rubbish) is about a standard ruler high, we line it with old cereal packets and fill it about once a week. Sometimes, not even that. Can anyone beat that?

At the weekend we picked up the turkey poults from Stafford. This year we have six, four females and two larger males. So far so well-behaved. Names are immediately an issue. For the two we are responsible for we have decided on politicians again (making the Christmas hatchet that much easier). Having previously had a Gove, this year we are having a Cam and a BoJo. Other names please!