Record Harvest on Display at Tring Apple Fair

By now, I think, most of us have got used to the idea that "global warming" doesn't necessarily mean "better weather for Brits" - and "Climate Change" is a better expression to use.

And whatever the long term changes, this year has been different, with a cold spring, a cool summer and several very wet periods.

But while this has messed up flower shows up and down the land, it seems to have been very much to apple trees' liking.

Almost everyone with a half-alive apple tree has had a truly amazing crop this year - and the cold periods seem to have inhibited the codling moths, because the proportion of damaged apples is low at the same time.

So it was Blackberry and Apple when the blackberries were in season and now it's Stewed Apple with Honey, Baked Apple with Demarara Sugar and Cinnamon and good old plain Stewed Apple with a smidgin of cream.

In fact there seem to have been so many apples that Tring's perennial pest, the Edible Dormouse (Latin name: Glis glis) seems to have been unable to keep up their usual marauding and spoiling of fruit this year - or maybe the cold and wet early summer has kept their numbers down.

But anyway, there are plenty of good apples around and for those without trees of their own apples like the fine ones shown here are available from Dunsley Farm Shop on London Road.

The Bungalow on Cow Lane is one of several Hertfordshire County Council farm tenancies in the area so the local County Councillor, Liberal Democrat Nick Hollinghurst (in pic), was down to enjoy and admire the proceedings.