The Tree of Optimism.

A friend of mine is a member of our village Parish Council, and me being of an allotmenteering bent., he asked me to help with a special job recently. It was the planting of a replacement apple tree on Parish land, for one that had become diseased and had to be felled, and which was protected by a tree preservation order.

Little was known about the now truncated old tree, such as when it was planted or what variety it was, which I thought rather sad. It had stood there forlorn and forgotten  in  that field for a very long time, but must have  had some significance once,  having ended up with a TPO on it.

Stumped (gettit !) as to what variety it was, we plumped for a good old  fashioned Bramley as its replacement, that will hopefully supply the innards of many a scrumptious apple pie for years to come.

Before

After

When the sheep in the field where it was to go, were eventually corralled off, the deed was duly carried out on a very wet and windy afternoon with their prolific droppings clinging everywhere. I must admit, for a while I wondered what the hell I was doing there!

People who passed by expressed an approving interest, except for one doom laden old lad who deflated me a little.  “You’ll just have to wait about seven years now, to see any apples from it”, he muttered, and it did make me think, given our ages!

It reminded me of the tale of the very old man who wanted to plant a tree, but his wife of sixty years questioned whether it was worth doing at his extended age.

“Hmm, I see what you mean”, he said, but after a short hesitation added,  “I’d better get on with it sharpish then, hadn’t I”.

Now was that just an acceptance of his fate, or a defiant show of optimism in the continuity of life beyond his own existence.  I prefer to believe the latter.

So in solidarity with that old man and in memory of the old tree, it was worth getting p***ing wet through and covered in sheep s**t for, I think, even though I may have to wait a while for some apple pie.

Still learning.

“I am not ashamed to confess I am ignorant of what I do not know”. ( Marcus Tulius Cicero. 106 - 43 BC)

I have a limited knowledge of our native trees. I’m OK with Ashes, Oaks and Willows etc, but any further than that and I start to struggle.

That, and the fact that we now live on the edge of woodland, in which we regularly walk, prompted me to buy this book.

The book

It’s full of photographs of the leaves, bark, fruit, flowers, you name it, of trees, and positively teeming with information on how to identify them. The author couldn’t have made it any more idiot proof if he'd tried.

Well he didn’t allow for arboreally challenged idiots like me did he, because the first time I tried it on a particular tree, I failed miserably.

Mystery tree.

 The leaves of the one in question looked similar to Sweet Chestnut, well to me they did anyway, but were less serrated and the fruit that were forming didn’t have that spiky exterior they should have. Maybe they’ll form spikes later I thought.

Passing the tree often over the following months, I watched the fruit swelling but they didn’t get any spikier, not even a bristle. What I needed was to have a look inside one, but as they were all too high, I had to wait patiently for them to fall in autumn.

So you can imagine my dismay recently, to discover they’d all gone. Something or someone, obviously taller  and more agile than me, had stripped the tree completely bare of fruit.

Not to be beaten, I searched for ages around its base to see if the nifty nut-nicker had missed any, and as it’s near a public path, attracted strange looks from passers-by as they steered their children clear of the nutcase searching for nut-cases.

Eventually I was rewarded with a single specimen and, it still had its contents, phew ! So taking my trusty Swiss penknife, made in China, I tried slicing it open but was met with resistance just below the green outer surface. However, I had exposed just enough of the familiar surface of the shell inside, to tell me straight away what it was.

Public Announcement!!!.......Can all people knowledgeable about such things, please stop reading at this point , as I'm embarrassed enough as it is.

Yes I have to admit, that as many as I've gripped in the jaws of a nutcracker, or eaten along with their whips, that's the first time I' ve seen a walnut in its natural state !

Walnut