I made my first proper visit of the year to the allotment today to make a start on the pruning – it’s about to be March! I only made a few cuts and spent an awful lot of time standing back and looking at the tree. On one such perusal I noticed movement in my peripheral vision and saw this little field vole poking its head out of one of the many holes along the boundary. Ultimately it came out to see me and wasn’t too timid at all. I wonder if I’ll see more of them this year.

One of the big problems with the apple tree has been its lean, exacerbated by the stake pushing on this branch. I wondered about taking the branch back to the trunk, but it would likely make a bit of a hole at the front. For now, I’ve removed the stake and hope to gradually persuade the tree to stand up a little.

I took a little off the back and shortened a very long branch out the front that gets in the way of walking/mowing. That’s now gone back to the bed boundary.

More research tonight and then more cutting tomorrow.