Banishing the Winter Blues

After a December of flooding, flu and other obstacles we finally managed a trip to my £40-a-year therapist this morning. The skies were blue, the puddles frozen and the ground so hard it crunched beneath our feet but boy was it glorious :)

Now I'm a pretty sedentary creature by nature but one thing I have come to realise over the last few years is if I don't get outside and feel the sun on my face, the wind in my hair and get dirt under my finger nails on a regular basis then I become a lousy human being and a real misery to live with. The allotment has become my refuge, a plot that not only feeds the body but feeds the soul too. So this morning we began tending it in earnest. Whilst the buzzards keened overhead and the blue tits, blackbirds and robins supervised we pruned the apple trees. Beginning with removing the dead and diseased and moving on to the crossing and awkwardly positioned limbs, we then freed them from the encroaching brambles and nettles and checked them over ready for the new year's growing season.

Whilst the big cookers are now a bit smaller and this year will give a reduced crop hopefully they will be a bit healthier going into the future and the little cox-like eater will have a bit more room to breath. I know how it feels.