Fruit For Thought

Or should I say the lack of it.
I'll explain later.

This is Clematis Rebecca, purchased about five years ago, and growing atop an apple tree. It was bred by Raymond Evison, and named after his eldest daughter. This year it has produced its best display ever, and as you can see there are lots of buds to follow.

It was whilst taking this photo that I noticed the apples, or should I say lack of them. The apple tree is Bolero, and it has only a few apples on it this year. Normally it is a prolific cropper. So I decided to check my other apple trees. Three of them have no apples at all, despite producing plenty of blossom earlier. Obviously this is the result of the crazy weather we have had this spring and the lack of pollinators. Ironically, my Polka apple tree is laden with fruit despite not having had much blossom, but it bloomed later than the others, when there must have been more bees around.

I then decided to check my gooseberry bush; two fruits, just two, hardly worth getting the cream out. On a more positive note, the blueberry plants are full of fruit, and the raspberries and strawberries seem to be doing well also. The blackbirds must be licking their beaks in anticipation.

You may recall I mentioned in my last post that I had been nominated for the Sunshine Blog award by Mary at Muse, and that I had to answer some questions. Please feel free to stop reading at this point. Normal service will be resumed next post. Anyway here goes:

Favourite colour:      Blue, I'm sure I've answered that one before.

Favourite animal:      Dog, Joey would never forgive me if I had chosen anything else.

Favourite number:    A winning lottery number. Although I'd need to know it before the lottery was drawn, not much use finding it out afterwards.

Favourite non-alcholic drink;    Tea, there's nothing like a nice cuppa tea.

Facebook or Twitter:     Twitter, I love the dawn chorus.

My passion:      Music, if music be the food of love. Do you know, I'm sure I've heard that before.

Getting or Giving Presents:    Tis far better to give than to receive. And I've heard that one before too.

Favourite Pattern:   A mackerel sky, one of Nature's magnificent paintings.

Favourite Day of the week:   All my working life it was always Saturday, but now I quite like Mondays.

Favourite Flower:    Difficult this one, there are so many that I like. Anyway I'll go back to the Fuchsia, see what I did there. It was one of the first flowers that I grew.

And finally I'm supposed to choose five blogs I like. As I explained previously, this I find impossible because there are so many excellent blogs out there, so I'll just direct you to my blog roll for some excellent reading. And thanks again to Mary for nominating me, please check out her blog, it's brill.