A tree dies.....

 

This is is a dying Cox's Orange apple tree.....we brought it with us probably some forty years ago when we first came to La Chaise.   To be honest, we probably smuggled it in because countries are not keen on private individuals bringing in plants...But John did so want an English apple tree in our putative orchard...

We have cared for it with fertiliser, patching the holes in its bark, deterring greedy birds, pruning its excess growth.   But nothing helped - I do not remember ever having a fruit from that tree.  

Almost every year we removed the moss from its bark, patched the holes in its trunk, packed damp straw round the roots, added fertiliser  but nary a fruit was seen.

The butter coloured toadstools at its root must now have the final word. We shall have to dig it out and burn it - or we should burn it but burning is forbidden at present because of the lack of rain....

Sadly it will have an unceremonious removal - nothing like the drama that accompanied the descent of the great oak whose remains can just be seen behind the apple tree.

But perhaps, just perhaps....when it is gone some shoots will come up in the place where it was...Look at the remains of the great oak - there is a young oak growing there...We can - and shall - hope.