nature
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First Trip of Spring
On the wall of what I call my office, but is really just a spare bedroom with ideas above its station, I have a map of the local area. It’s actually two 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey Explorer maps blue tacked together so that they nearly match up. I add a coloured pin any time I find… Continue reading
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A Bird Both Mundane and Mystical
Last weekend I was due to attend a pruning workshop held by the National Trust over in Styal, Cheshire. The trip would have involved getting up at 5am, taking a taxi to Grimsby in time for the first train heading west and then a two mile forced march to make the start time. And then… Continue reading
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Down this Way Lies Wonder
Working for almost two evenings a week and pretending to look after apple trees can take it out of a soul so recently I decided to get away from it all. I booked a week in a reasonably priced cottage and set off for a holiday on Holy Island. There was a bit more planning… Continue reading
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A New False Dawn
Writer’s note: this post is a summary of all the nonsense that has gone before. Don’t waste precious time reading it if you’ve been around for a while. Some years ago, my dad took early retirement from the offices of the local district council with a decent lump sum and, I think it’s fair to… Continue reading
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The Green Man and Me
I’ve told a lot of people about this blog and my orchard over the last few years, always pretending to protest that they won’t be interested but secretly desperate to bang on about my passion project. Normally, what happens after I’ve explained the vagaries of finding trees in the wild is that they smile and… Continue reading
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Pork Pies and Poldark
After an eighteen-month absence there is a lot of work that needs doing to bring the orchard up to a respectable standard. It doesn’t take a Level 3 Certificate in Orcharding (available from the Permaculture Association) to spot that the trees have been neglected. Branches swing and cross haphazardly from leaning trunks, and everywhere you… Continue reading
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A Sort of Homecoming
It’s been a while since I last visited my orchard. Maybe a double while, if that’s a thing. Back in the cold, dark days of January last year I went a-wassailing round the trees with a friend of mine but instead of blogging about it I sent it off to The Poacher magazine and braced… Continue reading
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Tree Story
Last Autumn, I left behind the bright lights and bustling streets of Lincoln and moved back to Louth, the Wolds market town where I took my first half-hearted steps towards adulthood. When I moved into my new house I found a suspicious looking plant in the back garden, hiding behind a bush as if it… Continue reading
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About Me
I’ve been writing about orchards and Lincolnshire heritage apples for over five years and still don’t know my arse from my elbow. This blog is supposed to be an almost humorous record of my attempts to raise apple trees in a field just outside Louth. Mrs Toogood is just one of the lost varieties I probably won’t find.
The Appeal of Mrs Toogood 