Chapter 15: Nesting and new life!

Although the trees looked beautiful with their blossom, these first few years it is wise to pluck the blossom off thus allowing the tree to divert its energy to growth. It takes a lot of effort for a tree to bear fruit and so we walked round to each tree and explained it was not their time to fruit and that they should concentrate on growing strong and healthy! We took photos of the beautiful blossom first of course and pet rabbits enjoyed the offering of blossom nibbles!
It was lovely to head 5o miles North on a sunny May Day and visit our friends at Welsh Mountain Cider, wandering round the mature orchards there in the sunshine and enjoying the full branches of blossom.
Everything is lush and green now and the feasting has begun. The bird song is in full swing. The summer visitors are here swooping acrobatically around the skies. Gold finches can be seen darting between the young trees and perched on the tree guards and tops of the young trees feeding on the various insects. Mrs Blackbird has been gathering hay from the barn to make her nests these last few days. Several families of woodpeckers are living here too and can be seen at most times of the day swooping in across the meadow to bulk up with peanuts from the feeder. Earlier in the month you could hear their boinging wood sounds around the strips of woodland. We even had the privilege of watching a paper wasp skilfully build her nest from the wooden truck ceiling, though sadly one day she didn’t return to the nest and it was never completed. We have since found another paper wasp nest in an old cider box left over from the wassailing. I’m finally getting this posted a couple of weeks on from when it was written…. in a heatwave!