"Goin' to be an 'ard winter! Arrr!"
Autumn is now on our doorstep, what with the Equinox passing. Evenings are noticably drawing out now and the days are getting cooler. Mind you, never known a season for nuts and berries, especially acorns and conkers. We had a bit of a blow a week or so back, after a long spell of very calm weather and they were lying in carpets under the oaks and horse chestnuts.
The long avenue of the latter lining the main road in Woodford Green has suffered particularly badly this year from the wretched leaf miner moth caterpillars, they look like they're on the verge of winter already. I really hope the local council doesn't follow that of Wandsworth's lead. Tooting Common is going to lose 51 mature Horse Chestnuts because they too are diseased, and this isn't an isolated incident, trees in other parks and commons in Britain have suffered the same fate.
I acknowledge that the trees have got a problem, but the sight of that line in spring, rich and green and covered in blossom lifts the heart, as does holding a newly fallen conker in the hand in autumn, fresh from its pod. Wish someone would come up with a way of wiping the moths out instead, it's not like they're indiginous (neither is the tree really) and they have no local predators to keep them under control.
Ah well, they do say as how a rich crop of berries fortells a hard winter to come. Total bollocks of course, but a good hard winter is one way of keeping the moths under control, they like things a little more Mediterranean, so here's hoping.
The long avenue of the latter lining the main road in Woodford Green has suffered particularly badly this year from the wretched leaf miner moth caterpillars, they look like they're on the verge of winter already. I really hope the local council doesn't follow that of Wandsworth's lead. Tooting Common is going to lose 51 mature Horse Chestnuts because they too are diseased, and this isn't an isolated incident, trees in other parks and commons in Britain have suffered the same fate.
I acknowledge that the trees have got a problem, but the sight of that line in spring, rich and green and covered in blossom lifts the heart, as does holding a newly fallen conker in the hand in autumn, fresh from its pod. Wish someone would come up with a way of wiping the moths out instead, it's not like they're indiginous (neither is the tree really) and they have no local predators to keep them under control.
Ah well, they do say as how a rich crop of berries fortells a hard winter to come. Total bollocks of course, but a good hard winter is one way of keeping the moths under control, they like things a little more Mediterranean, so here's hoping.