For Apple Day: Eat your way to the river
It's Apple Day, one of my favourite days of the year and what better way to celebrate than to tell you about my recent trip to Longney, where Gloucestershire Orchard Trust have 18 acres of apple orchard under their tender care. Here you'll find older orchards with some trees well over a century old, plus their newer plantings of around 94 Gloucestershire cultivars which have just acquired national plant collection status at Plant Heritage . The jury's out on the actual number as DNA testing has revealed at least one locally named variety is actually a more well known one: Ribston Pippin in this case. Don't worry, there are dozens there which definitely have their origins rooted firmly in Gloucestershire and their cultivation at Longney is vital to their continued presence and preservation. There were around 200 local varieties at one time and today it's around 100 still in existence. Steve Mason - the Trust's Curator - was our knowledgeable guide who invited ...


Concentrate mentally on soil and digging which is done, solution will come...
ReplyDeleteI have housemaid's knee, so I sympathise. My solution so far: butch it out and dig anyway. Probably not a medically recognised therapy, but what the hell.
ReplyDeleteIgnore the digging - difficult I know but there's no point in making your elbow worse. Read seed catalogues instead :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with easygardener, let it heal, then go back to it. If weeds are worrying you peg down some black tarp or similar to suppress them. With the rain we are supposed to get this weekend the soil won't thank you for working it anyway. For you - try gentle exercise to keep it mobile, gentle massage, glucosamine, arnica, either topically or as a pillule, or other anti-inflammatory, acupuncture (I swear by this), and reflexology are beneficial too. (I just got back from 2 hours with Rachel, yay!)
ReplyDeleteHope it's feeling much better soon xx
Zoe's idea of the weed suppressing membrane seems very sensible. Hope the elbow gets better soon - probably too much knitting!
ReplyDeleteVP, I would loan you some monkeys, but there is a large body of water in the way.
ReplyDeleteEwa - I do hope so
ReplyDeleteSoilman - that's exactly what I've been doing, with the help of Ibulieve!
Easygardener - that's very very tempting!
Zoe - I'm thinking of raisding the local supermarkets for lots of cardboard. Will cause some controversy up at the plot, but what the hell!
PG - thanks! And possibly too much blogging!
Deb - that's a nice thought :) I thought of borrowing your Label 'I'm a wimp' when I was writing this ;)
I can loan you SomeBeans - he's bereft now he's finished digging our allotment. All he needs in return is cake.
ReplyDeleteWhen can he start? I'll start baking right now...
ReplyDeleteThe digging will still be there when you are fit enough to tackle it. Not worth aggrevating your poorly arm. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anna. It's just a bit depressing as my plot's covered with weeds now and everyone else's has lots of lovely dug areas.
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