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Sparrowhawks can fly through some dense hedging - I watched one fly through the holly in our front garden and out the other side with what it went in for, a sparrow.
Not seen one around for a bit but then it is only just daylight when I leave for work and dark when I'm going home these days.

So JT, what sort of varieties of apple did you use? Did you only use a single variety or a mix? The fermentation process gives off CO2 which is heavier than air so will be sitting on top of the cider, so unless you're moving it around a lot from container to container then it will do just that, sit ...

You probably can pollenate the tree by hand but you will still need a couple of others nearby to pollenate from. I wonder why would you need to unless you were trying to breed new varieties from the tree.

You do have two other apple trees nearby that blossom at the same time don't you or you might not get any fruit.
Are you going to be training the tree or leaving it in a less formal shape?

But did you have a taste to see if it's one to drink now or one to leave for a bit longer?

One extra point I would add is get a good guitar stand and a music stand. Have them setup with the guitar and whatever book/music you're playing on them. It's a lot easier to practice and play if you're not spending several minutes getting the guitar out etc. T'other half who plays classical guitar ...

Would a fruit comb berry picker thing work with elderberries? Take your pick from all sorts of online shops, a quick search showed them in Just Green, Harrod Horticultural, Recycle Works, Ray Mears and even on the one that used to just be a bookshop.

Hi Wildbrew. I see you've posted a couple of recipes in the homebrew section of this forum. Nice looking things there. I agree about the blackberrys this year, not great is it but lots of other stuff is fine. What sort of areas do you go forraging in? I live not far from you near Glossop and was bro...

The other thing is almost all the information about composting tells you that you should be getting compost quickly and you speed it up at turning it. You may speed it up at turning it but that isn't the be all and end all to composting. You can just leave it all as MKG suggested. It takes longer, b...

How cool is cool? Cool, cold or frozen? How much stuff needs keeping at that temperature? I have a small pouch thing that works by water evaporating to keep the contents cool. I use it to keep insulin cool while we're away camping. The idea can be scale up (as long as it's not to humid to stop the w...

Of the self seeded toms, if you like them you should save some seed for yourself in case they don't self seed again. Bit of a faff preparing the seed but easy enough - t'other half's sister has been growing toms from saved seed for a number of years now.

Now we've got a wild plum tree growing nearby and I'd like to have a go at Plum Wine. Assuming that the tree hasn't been stripped by other foragers or birds and that the plums haven't gone over and fallen off. What is a good recipe for wine from the fruit? From looking online the recipes I've seen h...

Is it a fairly easy to pick up technique, using a scythe? I've wondered about one to keep things down on the allotment. Not sure if t'other half would like it, she doesn't seem to be keen on sharp blades. A old chap who has a house on the same row as us and has the small padock opposite uses a scyth...

We'll be wending our way southwestwards tomorrow ready to get to Beautiful Days on thursday when they open the camping. Under no circumstances am I to direct the other half round a corner that nearly caused the car to die last year - that was a slight detour to get cider for herself on the way to th...

It was once again annoying to be clouded out, but never mind at least we didn't have the full moon to contend with...