One of my earlier posts was a reminiscence of smells - how smells bring back memories. While shopping earlier this week, I saw a bag of apples in Asda, held them up - and sniffed them - and I was back in that reception classroom, sitting on the floor with my apple. The bag of apples are Worcester apples - and the smell is just gorgeous! I could spend ages just sniffing those apples, and enjoying the smell and memories.
Yesterday I went to a course, all about de-escalation, and as I was driving to the venue I was looking at the trees along the North Devon Link Road. I was looking for the fruit trees. This is something I only noticed last year, as I was driving along the link road. Why was last year the first time I saw them? Is it because I drove along the road so many times last year - with trips to Liverpool and trips in pursuit of achieving the challenge I had set for myself. What I noticed was how many trees along the side of the road had fruit on them. It was lovely to see the fruit hanging on the branches once the leaves had disappeared.
Seeing the fruit whilst driving along made me think about several things. I wondered how viable the fruit was - whether it was still good to eat as it was still on the tree. I wondered whether people had stopped in the lay-bys and taken advantage of the free snacks so widely available. I wondered how many other people had noticed all the fruit trees whilst driving along - how many children had seen them whilst on their long car journey to their seaside holiday, and had a hankering for an apple.
I also started thinking about how the fruit trees came to be growing in these places. We know that throwing rubbish out of car windows is not the right thing to do - and leads to a horrible looking countryside, full of rubbish. However, many of us consider that biodegradable matter is a bit of a different matter when it comes to chucking it in the hedgerows. Certainly to start with, it is somewhat unsightly, but in time the waste becomes organic matter, and provides the ideal conditions for growth. In time, the fruit trees grow, and their appearance improves the look of the roadside, help to lessen noise pollution, and also helps to combat the carbon dioxide, through photosynthesis.
How long has it taken for these trees to get to where they are today? For those on the road between Bideford and Barnstaple I suppose we can narrow it down to the seeds being planted in the late 1980's - as Bideford New Bridge opened in May 1987. So, the trees are 30 years old at the most.
It is lovely to see something so positive come out of rubbish. It reminds me of a post I saw on Facebook recently, showing people who had put orange peel all over an area of deforested national park, and then left it. The result some 15 years later, was that the area had grown into a vine-laden forest (read the full story here - or google 'orange peel forest' to find several different articles). Good things can come from waste products. We know this, as we are encouraged to recycle - glass, plastic, clothes, books; we are also advised to compost unused, uneaten food, and fruit and vegetable peelings.
Foraging is a way of life for some people, and it is always fun to eat a few blackberries when out on a walk. The foraging habit is seasonal for a lot of people - and that season is on us now. September and October mark the time of eating crumbles - blackberry, blackberry and apple, and making jam. In my ongoing challenge to make each day count, I have decided that I will go out and forage the fruit - to try it, and so make the most of what is around us.
Another memory surfaces, regarding disposing of biodegradable material. When sailing with Dad and Grandad, we would throw apple cores and fruit stones overboard while sailing along, and if I remember correctly, once fish had been gutted, the head and guts were disposed of overboard. As we sailed across Lyme Bay, at some distance from the shore, we threw the fruit stones overboard - in the late 1980's. At the time, we joked that there would be peach and nectarine trees growing up in the bay in a couple of years time. I've not seen any reports of a fruit orchard seen in the bay yet - perhaps the water was very deep there!
When it comes to apple cores, we can give thanks to the litter louts who threw them out of the windows while on their travels; they have helped to improve our environment, and to lessen the impact of the new roads on the area in which they are situated, resulting in something for us to marvel at during our car journeys. Isn't nature wonderful?
Yesterday I went to a course, all about de-escalation, and as I was driving to the venue I was looking at the trees along the North Devon Link Road. I was looking for the fruit trees. This is something I only noticed last year, as I was driving along the link road. Why was last year the first time I saw them? Is it because I drove along the road so many times last year - with trips to Liverpool and trips in pursuit of achieving the challenge I had set for myself. What I noticed was how many trees along the side of the road had fruit on them. It was lovely to see the fruit hanging on the branches once the leaves had disappeared.
Seeing the fruit whilst driving along made me think about several things. I wondered how viable the fruit was - whether it was still good to eat as it was still on the tree. I wondered whether people had stopped in the lay-bys and taken advantage of the free snacks so widely available. I wondered how many other people had noticed all the fruit trees whilst driving along - how many children had seen them whilst on their long car journey to their seaside holiday, and had a hankering for an apple.
I also started thinking about how the fruit trees came to be growing in these places. We know that throwing rubbish out of car windows is not the right thing to do - and leads to a horrible looking countryside, full of rubbish. However, many of us consider that biodegradable matter is a bit of a different matter when it comes to chucking it in the hedgerows. Certainly to start with, it is somewhat unsightly, but in time the waste becomes organic matter, and provides the ideal conditions for growth. In time, the fruit trees grow, and their appearance improves the look of the roadside, help to lessen noise pollution, and also helps to combat the carbon dioxide, through photosynthesis.
How long has it taken for these trees to get to where they are today? For those on the road between Bideford and Barnstaple I suppose we can narrow it down to the seeds being planted in the late 1980's - as Bideford New Bridge opened in May 1987. So, the trees are 30 years old at the most.
It is lovely to see something so positive come out of rubbish. It reminds me of a post I saw on Facebook recently, showing people who had put orange peel all over an area of deforested national park, and then left it. The result some 15 years later, was that the area had grown into a vine-laden forest (read the full story here - or google 'orange peel forest' to find several different articles). Good things can come from waste products. We know this, as we are encouraged to recycle - glass, plastic, clothes, books; we are also advised to compost unused, uneaten food, and fruit and vegetable peelings.
Foraging is a way of life for some people, and it is always fun to eat a few blackberries when out on a walk. The foraging habit is seasonal for a lot of people - and that season is on us now. September and October mark the time of eating crumbles - blackberry, blackberry and apple, and making jam. In my ongoing challenge to make each day count, I have decided that I will go out and forage the fruit - to try it, and so make the most of what is around us.
Another memory surfaces, regarding disposing of biodegradable material. When sailing with Dad and Grandad, we would throw apple cores and fruit stones overboard while sailing along, and if I remember correctly, once fish had been gutted, the head and guts were disposed of overboard. As we sailed across Lyme Bay, at some distance from the shore, we threw the fruit stones overboard - in the late 1980's. At the time, we joked that there would be peach and nectarine trees growing up in the bay in a couple of years time. I've not seen any reports of a fruit orchard seen in the bay yet - perhaps the water was very deep there!
When it comes to apple cores, we can give thanks to the litter louts who threw them out of the windows while on their travels; they have helped to improve our environment, and to lessen the impact of the new roads on the area in which they are situated, resulting in something for us to marvel at during our car journeys. Isn't nature wonderful?
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