Sunday, May 01, 2011

May Day and Apple Blossom in our Cottage Garden


The weather continues to be warm and dry here in the West of Scotland - and our ancient apple tree is in full bloom at the bottom of the garden. It's so old, that it is essentially on a two year cycle. It takes a rest every second year and only produces a few pounds of apples, but on alternate years, we have a glut, and it looks as though this is going to be a good apple year! I've no idea what variety this is - all I know is that it's very old, and that it produces a good sized greeny-gold cooking apple, which is sweet enough to be cooked without sugar, but just tart enough to make wonderful pies and crumbles. Every year, I resolve to take some fruit to Culzean Castle's annual 'apple day' to try to find out exactly what it is - but I've never yet managed to do it!
Meanwhile, the garden is full of birds as well as blossom. There's a young female blackbird who loves to rummage in the pond weed that Alan skims off the top - here she is - quite tame.

She managed to toss most of the weed back into the pond, as she rooted for insects and other tasty morsels!

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