Spring in the orchard is a magical time. After the cold, dark winter months everything bursts into life.

The grass shoots up, trees explode into flower, myriad insects emerge and birds begin to build their nests.

The sight of the orchard in Llanblethian in full bloom is a wonderful sight. The air is heavy with the gentle smell of apple and pear blossom. A faint hum of insects visiting the flowers fills the orchard.

Our orchard is quite biennial in nature. One year the trees produce a huge crop, the next they rest. This year is the ‘on’ year. As you can see from the photos below  it looks like we will have a good harvest this autumn.

Fingers crossed the blossom sets now. Late frosts are the bane of perry trees as it can kill the flowers / young fruit. This year the blossom is early so heres hoping for good weather!

On an aside, the giant yellow huffcap tree covered in flowers in the photos really pleases me. It was planted in 2009 ish as quite a large tree and didnt flower at all until last year. I guess it’s making up for lost time!