Eucan, well, I did anyhow.

A little while back in the summer I was presented the opportunity by the Wiltshire Orchard Project to head off to Belgium for two weeks paid learning holiday. The deal was simple, participate in Europom '09 - a celebration of Europe's fruit, in particular apples and pears. Thousands of spherical bundles of joy were presented for beard strokers to browse through. The 18 (or so) strong team of Blighty volunteers were on hand to photograph each sample to be recorded for prosterity....and of course taste samples were an unofficial perk.

The remainding time was spent in the competant hands of Paul, our mentor and all round great chap. His 27 years of orchard management experience flowed like the juice of a million apples and we lapped....er....shall we say he gave a good show on pruning apples and other techniques.

We were free most evenings to sample the vast range of Belgium beers on offer and for two weeks nothing less passed my lips...cider had to take a back seat for a while, the Belgians appeared to be non-plussed when it came to good ol' scrumpy, it seems to be the great unmentionable in that neck of the world!

In return for days of pruning, apple collecting, photgraphy and cooking we return the honour by volunteering for a couple of days in an orchard related theme. Also, a written report on the holiday will be submitted.

This experience has been great and like the time I spent in Germany has strongly fixed my conservation sights on great ideas. A few of which are taking shape and are beginning to....fruit, I suppose!

Eucan, well, I did anyhow.

Lateral thinking

The annual Tree Warden Forum (under the Tree Council) took an eager bunch to the Bathurst Estate in Gloucestershire. This mighty Oak adjacent to the polo grounds on the estate had fantastic lateral limbs extending left and right.






Also on the estate are some classic 'gun barrel' beech trees. They gain the 'gun' name from the near perfect straight stems extending high into the canopy. These were some of the finest I've seen and possibly some of the best in the country.






So great were the beech trees that a series of large sheets were laid out to collect fallen seeds. These seeds are gathered to form part of the bank of a national collection of trees. Saplings grown from this resource are ensured to be native and from good stock...providing the squirrels don't get there first!



Take a look at the video below:

Lateral thinking

Back from the woods......

It's been a long time since I've been on this site and after a few years of wandering the wilderness I think it's high time I collected my thoughts and submit a few more experiences.

I'll be back to continue the saga soon............

Back from the woods......