Tag: fruit

July 31st – One thing I am noticing this year is the huge fruit harvest. From blackberries to pears, from rowan berries to crab apples the hedgerows and woods this year are offering a wonderful bounty.

This crab apple tree near Clayhanger is burdened with a massive amount of apples that will sadly rot on the ground – not enough people making hedgerow jelly or wine these days I guess.

July 28th – The hazel hedge by the canal, between Silver Street pedestrian bridge and Coopers Bridge is heavy with nuts this year – clearly to the joy of the local squirrel population. Thankfully when I spotted these healthy specimens, they grey rodents hadn’t completely stripped the trees of their creamy bounty yet.

But they’re having a jolly good go, bless them.

Still can’t get into my head that w have fruiting hazels growing healthily on what used to be an open, festering refuse tip.

July 24th – It seems early for blackberries to be ripening in such quantities right now, but they are. I think in reality we’re maybe only a week or two ahead of schedule, but it just seems wrong.

The foragers and animals won’t mind though – this juicy, black-red sugar laden fruit will sustain many a bird or rodent and make for many a decent pudding the the coming month or so.

Again, it seems like a good crop too.

July 23rd – Saddly poor photo of something that caught me by surprise: A wayside pear tree in Clayhanger (I won’t say where) is fruiting very heavily this year, and despite the dry conditions, the fruit look like they’re going to be quite large.

Watching this one carefully, but expecting the crop to be decimated by birds (bless them) as it has been before.

July 16th – In Telford, I noticed that following the dry summer, the rowan berries were ripening well, but not large; they look dry, rough and on the verge of shrivelling.

It’ll be interesting to see if other fruits are similarly affected.

It’s a long time since we had a dry summer like this.

July 6th – Well, all week now I’ve been talking about the onset of the fruiting season, and here it is: The first blackberries are beginning to ripen near Clayhanger.

Not sure how good they’ll be though with the chronic lack of rainfall this summer: no chance to swell those lovely purple-black berries.

It’ll be interesting to see if the end crop is as early as it feels, and if the fruit are any good…

July 3rd – Summer ticks on and as I noted a few days ago, we’ve moved from flowing to fruiting. 

Lots of berries are now developing on the branches, from haws to rowan berries and even plenty of ripening cherries.

These will bring with them reds, oranges and purples and a whole range of new colour as they and the season mature.

A wonderful time of year.

May 9th – Between the Black Cock and Clayhanger Bridges, not far from the new pond, an apple tree on the canal embankment is in bloom.

If smells absolutely beautiful and is a veritable riot of flowers.

I love how the dominant colour is pure white, but look closely and the buds and petal fringes are pink.

One of the most lovely sights of the season.

April 25th – One of the sadnesses of the season is how short lived the blossom is – it’s there, and gone in a blaze of colour, then shed petals and confetti, then… nothing. A more transient example of the season’s wheel you could not find.

At the moment, the blossom is just starting to end, but passing these two intertwined trees on the cycleway to Priorslee in Telford always fascinates me as it looks like one tree with two different colours of blossom.

I love how, even when fresh, the pink one looks like bright but tattered tissue paper.

Such a lovely, but all to quickly passing, time of year…