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Orchard Link members' day

I joined Orchard Link , a south Devon group of orchard enthusiasts, when doing some initial research about trees. I'd been to a few of their courses on pruning and planting, which had been a great introduction. There's also an expert on the end of an email if I ever get stuck or need advice. All the same, I was still slightly dubious about attending their annual jamboree last weekend as the only Londoner and also having a rather more amateurish set up than most of the members.  I think Roz and I lowered the average age in the room by a fair way but it was a great afternoon. James Crowden was the main speaker and talked at length about the history of cider in the Westcountry and the different varieties of apple. I'm now avidly reading his book Ciderland . There was also lots of lively debate and questions, and a cider and apple juice competition which i'd shied away from entering. With hindsight I think I'd have been in with a chance but then I'm slightly bia
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Year 6 OMG

It feels weird to write about 2020 when in a sense it's still with us - a long, dark lockdown of the soul, stretching out into the indeterminate future. What a fucker of a year. The virus has impacted so many lives in so many ways it makes everything else seem trite by comparison. I type this sitting staring at the walls in locked down London as the trees in Devon slumber peacefully. Another growth ring for them. We got planning permission in the spring to build a cider shed at the orchard meaning I can move out of my in-laws barn which I was slowly colonising as I added more and more containers to the collection like a Speidel fanboy. This is probably not going to be a fast move (£££!) but it gives the long term plan a little more solidity and a path to the future. Speaking to pubs, even when they were open this year, tastes changed somewhat; the drinking crowd being younger as the oldies were more likely to play it safe and stay home, meaning a shift to sweeter cider or away from
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