Billy Young's Blog - Posts Tagged "cherries"

Tammy and Magz made the muffins I hoped for last week. I had some in my lunch box during the week. A few extra calories of deliciousness is just the thing to get you through the week. Sadly there are only a very small number of the tiniest berries left on my bush now. I think the birds had themselves a small snack during the week because I was sure there were more left last week. Of course I could just as easily be wrong. You know how the mind works over even a short time like a week. I do still have some parsnips and carrots to pull up but mostly the garden is starting to head into winter mode. Once the leaves have fallen I will still have one important job to do which is to prune my apple tree. The cooking apple one that is as it has taken over the whole area of my fruit trees. It doesn't help that the other trees have been suffering from their own problems. Next year I'll need to try harder to deal with them and hopefully encourage them to a more fruitful future. Well it would be good to get some cherries. Maybe next year. After all I was close to it this year. I really did think we might get some sadly only to fail at the last. I think it was the sudden spike in the temperature that did it this year. Ironic really as usually it is the cold that has cost me my crop of cherries. Well it has been a warm year.

Well I have now paid for the SIA badge. I have now to wait for all my documents and security checks to clear and they should send me my badge in the coming few weeks. In the meantime I continue with job hunting and sending my CV via email to possible employers. It all really goes without saying I suppose but it is good to repeat to keep your focused on get back into work. It is easy to fall into lethargy as time passes without so much as a rejection email from applications sent. I was lucky in that sense this week as I got just that, a rejection that is. Though it wasn't the outcome I wanted it did remind me that someone is behind the faceless web applications we all fill out these days. After sending countless number over the past few months without any word back it was good.
Magz might get some cherries from our trees this year. There are a few cherries swelling nicely on them. Though with the local bird-life I will have to be quick when I see them go red. Talking of the garden I seem to have a lot of snails this year even though I have put down plenty of pellets to deal with the problem. I will actually need to get more pellets if my tomatoes are to survive as they have come attack in the past day or so and just when they were showing signs of shooting up.
Magz is still wondering what to do with all the rhubarb that was picked last week. Yeah I was hoping for crumble and I still am. Keep your fingers crossed for me, hehehe.

Still waiting on the SIA to decide if they are giving me the security badge as CCTV operator. I know it hasn't been that long so far and it can take up to five weeks for them to do all their checks before making a decision. I just seem to have little patients for the long wait. One good thing was that I did get my disclosure Scotland document this week. That means that the SIA must have gotten it as well which means they must be closer to completing their process. At least I would think they were though when checking their site I found that things don't seem to have changed. That I think is why I feel as if I am in limbo which as you can tell is a bit of a weight.
I the meantime I have been working on the chain I spoke of last week. To go with the necklace I have also made a bracelet to go with it in the same style. Well it would be wouldn't it, hehehe. I still have the catches to make for it. Calum, who is away at T in the Park, wants me to do some bar catches for them. Me being me, I want to make them different from the normal by soldering three silver wires together from the same gauge as I used to make the links. Why? I hear you ask. Well I just think it would look good and also more unique as well as interesting. So it might make them stand out more to anyone wishing to buy them. Well that is what Calum plans for them once I have completed them.
Magz enjoyed our first cherry from our garden this week. I was watching closely so the local bird life wouldn't get them before me. That does mean that the trees have saved themselves from my saw. I had been planning to get rid of them if they didn't produce fruit this year. I was fed up with them not giving fruit in past years. Some of that was due to the weather, well most of it, but I had given up on ever getting fruit from them. Well they now survive for a few more years to come. And the good thing is there is more to ripen so Magz is happily looking forwards to them.

Just been out doing the garden. With all the rain through the past month there hasn't been much of a chance to do the garden. While out cutting the hedges and grass I took the opportunity to mix some food for the potatoes and tomatoes. The tomatoes have been a surprise to me as I didn't think they would do well with the cold wet weather we got this year. But they are about to flower so I thought I should give them a good feed and now hope they produce some nice fruit for Magz. I also sprayed my apple tree with anti fungal stuff. As you will know from past years it has fungal problems which is really bad in the wetter years as it has been. Still I have sprayed a few times already this year for that reason and it has had an effect so we should get some eating apples from it. I have also been planning how much pruning the cooking apple tree will need after the fruiting season. It has need some more tying back even though I thought I had pruned it hard last year. Of course I didn't want to over do it but now it looks like maybe I should have been tougher on it. While tying it back though I found two more cherries that were hiding. Magz enjoyed them as they were extra juicy. as well as having a bit longer to ripen. I also got one strawberry, the only one this year. Sadly neither Magz or Tammy wanted it as it looked like something had a little nibble at it. And talking of nibbling my gooseberry bush under attack from sawfly so I also sprayed that. Magz was the one that spotted the green caterpillars. I was around the front when she came round in a panic over what she had seen. I just got out the trusty spray and hope that will deal with them. Though I suspect it will take a few more sprays to be sure followed with more spraying from now on.