A Dead Summer and Dying Trees

Is it coincidence or causality? Over the last couple of horribly wet months we have lost a tree, an old fruitless fruit tree that one day we noticed was gradually tipping over; and last week our next door neighbours lost two thirds of a huge ash - both thirds making our garden, the first taking out a bit of fence and scaring the chickens, the second utterly destroying the roof and severely damaging one wall of a year-old shed. Amicable discussions ensued, a new shed will replace it and we trust a piece of fencing. A month back a silver birch two doors down had to be removed before it toppled.

I wonder if the sodden ground accelerated these losses? And if the run of four or five wet summers here caused the rot to set in? This is a lovely leafy area, but becoming less so as such trees are lost. We have planted a quince, Victoria plum and greengage, but they will take a while to become established, and many years before they have anything like the architectural impact of the ash and the birch.  Maybe they never will, as the fear must be that this weather-pattern has set in and the ground will be this way off and on for the foreseeable.

It's an ill wind, however. Ash may not be the hottest-burning wood, but you can just about use it green, and we have room to dry it out - our neighbour is very happy to leave us the use of the wood that fell into our garden. So more bloody wood chopping, but later more wonderful warmth and warm smells from the stove in the dining room.

Death of a Chicken

A few weeks ago we (my wife and son to be honest, I'm too squeamish) killed one of our chickens which had not been laying for ages, and was starting to show signs of discomfort. That was less sad than the death last week of another of the original three birds. She had also stopped laying, but seemed ok and we were content to let her carry on. Then out of the blue I opened the hen-house to collect the eggs and found her dead on the laying box.

My environmental side says both birds were wasted (we couldn't bring ourselves to eat the one killed, and naturally wouldn't cook the one that had died), but another part of me found it rather sad that the one that pegged out overnight was found where maybe she had been trying to lay an egg, something long since beyond her. There are plenty in the workforce who in a way will meet the same fate.

Tebay - the Services You Enjoy Visiting

For Lancashire Life and eventually Meat Trades Journal I visited Tebay Services today. Is there another motorway service area in the UK you can actually feel good about (and after) visiting? In my past life I pounded the arterial roads, and had a policy of where possible avoiding motorway services, as they smell of grease, panic and corporate ignorance - Tebay being the honorable exception now as it has been for years. 

Family-owned, with a real (as opposed to convenient) commitment to local produce, it is cleaner, friendlier and more imaginative than the competition. Even the people visiting seem a different crowd. And bless them they have a butchery - no surprise when you find they were originally and are still farmers, their place supplying the beef, lamb and mutton and very fine the display looks to. Next time I am so tired I have to visit another services I will feel a tiny bit unfaithful.