Allotment Wassailing

Photos Copyright: Maggie May

The weather was sunny but crisp. There was activity on the local allotment. People were heading there in dribs and drabs, families mostly but older people went too.

What could be driving so many to visit the community orchard on our local district allotment?

Today was Wassailing Day.

An ancient tradition in the south of England that attempts to get the sap rising in the apple trees and encourage them to start to grow. This involved putting toast that had been dipped in cider, on a tree branch. Getting the children to bang on tins to get rid of all the bugs lurking around and pouring last year's cider around the apple trees to get them to produce more apples.

It was mainly aimed at the children and they all seemed to participate in this ancient fun tradition.

I normally go with my granddaughters, however, they now have to go to Japanese School with their mother every Saturday. Other years, Sam has taken part in the Morris Dancing display, but sciatica has prevented him from taking part since last summer. Even though the pain has much improved since he stopped dancing, he didn't feel he could risk starting another flare up of pain.

Still, it was good to catch up with the others who I'd got to know and exchange a few words with them and to watch them dance.

This was perhaps the biggest crowd of people who had attended since the first time that I'd ever witnessed it.

Things change with time and never stay the same.

Last year, I wrote about a similar visit on Wassailing Day.

The allotments (plots of land for growing vegetables and fruits), are good places to snap up scenes with a camera. There are always little nooks and crannies that I find fascinating.

After spending an hour or two in the cold, I was glad of a hot cup of tea when I got home and to toast my cold fingers and toes in front of the gas fire. Then there was the prospect of a Chinese take away that Harry always seems to get on a Saturday (no matter how he is feeling) and a cosy evening in watching TV or reading. Contentment.

Do others take pleasure in doing such basic, maybe boring things?

Wassailing

Photos Copyright: Maggie May

I recently wrote about a walk round the allotments.

They are not normally open to the public and usually there are locked gates on all allotments and only genuine tenants get a key.

On that occasion though, there was a function for the public to attend because of the celebration of Wassailing.

Although I am not a bit interested in the Wassailing ceremonies, I do appreciate that there is a communal orchard there and in the autumn the produce is sold off towards the maintenance etc. On this occasion, there was a cake stall. I am all for small communities getting together to support this kind of activity.

There was also some Morris Dancing which my son, Sam, usually takes part in. However he is struggling with back and ankle problems at the moment so he likes to attend these functions but doesn't aways feel up to taking part.

I am, at present, making a green rag jacket for Amber, who has passed the one I made for her last year on to her younger sister, Millie because it is a bit tight. The new one is going to be a much bigger size.

While I was at the allotments, I took a photo of these teasels and the catkins.

There doesn't seem to be much going on in my own garden, but on closer examination, I see snowdrops peeping through.

Some of my shrubs have been severely damaged by the bad winter and only time will tell whether that damage will be permanent. I feel it is never a good idea to chop things up without giving them a chance to recover.

I keep having to remind myself that there are at least two months left that we could have more snow and severe frost. Heres hoping that Spring weather is really on the way.

This weekend was The RSPB Great Garden Birdwatch.

Although I watched for the required hour, only three house sparrows and a wood pigeon came to my garden. At one time my garden was teeming with birds.

Have other people noticed a decline in garden birds?