This time of year finds us in the woods at Norton Conyers, it is the best time to care for the trees as you are not hindered by the evil nettles and gigantic balsam that smothers everything during the warmer months. I like to think of it as shepherding the trees, they are well overdue for some TLC after a year of neglect. We start by checking each plastic tube to see if it contains a living specimen, if not we remove the stake and guard to be used again if possible. Next we turn our attention to the more mature trees, if they have burst open the guard we remove it, this then give us the opportunity to check the growth and remove any weak side shoots or cut out the weakest leader if the main trunk has split in two. This helps to grow strong and straight trees that will not sucumb to the wind before their time. We were lucky with the weather yesterday as it was beautiful and despite being January and it made me glad to be back at work despite having a brilliant Christmas. I must be one of the few people who can look forward to returning to the daily grind, how lucky I am!
A quick update on poor old Shandy, she has had the pot taken off her leg but when she attempted to stand on it she fell over! So it is now bandaged and Giles has strict instructions not to let her walk on it until it has strenthened, consequently she is more miserable than before. Hopefully she will continue to mend and will soon be back chasing rabbits.
"Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it"
J.W.Von Goethe
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