A scary pear...

Back from the wilds of London to the wilds of the back garden, and time to get some of the pears off the tree. We sent the willing workforce up a ladder (could've been worse - the chimney needs to be swept but she wouldn't fit) and down came a whole load of pears.

They look great all in a row, but brilliantly intimidating close up! I shall call the one in front Al Pacino. Darn, Al Pearcino would have been funnier.

We're still waiting for these beautiful apples to ripen - they're still clinging to the tree and not coming away easily. Surely, any day now! The tree was given to us by friends, who didn't have enough space for it in their garden. Only four apples on it this year, which isn't bad in its first year after being transplanted. C picked one a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't quite ready, which is why we're watching and waiting.

Every surface is covered now with apples and pears waiting to be juiced or eaten, and lavender drying out.

A lovely day, ending with a gorgeous sunset - I only noticed the figure in the distance once I'd uploaded the photo.

Growing pains...

I'm hoping that the amount of blossom on the trees this year equates to the amount of fruit we'll get -  although we had blossom last year, we only had a handful of apples, very few pears, and none of them edible. This year, the apple tree is covered in blossom, the pear tree had lots (although it is now mostly gone) and the two new apple trees (one is James Grieve, the other a hand-me-down from a friend) also had smatterings of blossom. More importantly, we have a little bit of sunshine - so we shall wait and see!

Off to post some birthday gifts now, which will hopefully arrive in time!