January 26th 2025

Happy New Year

I have Harry to thank for the photograph that he took of Blue during a recent visit to Wells Beach, which I have decided to use as this year's logo. It is a typical image of the concentration that Blue gives to a tennis ball before running off with it as soon as anyone makes any attempt to pick it up. The other photos are from the same outing.

That time of year again - Pruning

I realise that I am never going to be entirely comfortable with the dark art of pruning fruit trees. It really should not be that difficult. I feel that the real problem is that those who consider themselves experts purposely make things much more complicated than they should be. They concentrate, for example, on the several incorrect ways of cutting a branch rather than simply telling you the method that should be used; dire consequences are listed should you dare to prune a branch that is bigger than your little finger with secateurs; and similar warnings are given should you choose to use a pruning saw, a bow saw or loppers, but I forget what they are. And woe betide if you mistake a weak spur system for a replacement shoot or, even worse, a water shoot.

Pruning is not for the impatient. I have noted that those who purport to know what they are doing spend a long time choosing a single stem to cut back and then circle the tree for the next ten minutes to look at its shape before pruning another lone branch. I am not especially worried about my less subtle technique of cutting everything off and then standing back to look at the final effect, as I once read that pruning mistakes can usually be corrected within a year or two and I hope to have improved by then.