The Goodies we Inherited

When you move into a new property, one of the real treats is to properly explore, when you have been given the key and it is finally yours.  I love the joy of finding all the hidden gems, that you didn't have time to see when you were simply looking at the logistics of the space, and the potential of a place.
With a farm as old as ours, we were sure the buildings would reveal some old agricultural oddities, but we were not expecting the gardens to provide so much bounty.
Apart from the plum orchards, we seem to have an avenue of mature fruit trees close to the buildings...

There are four cherry trees, two of which have the very bright red cherries that are quite sharp when eaten..

Whilst the other two trees are laden with large, luscious black cherries, full of juice and very sweet..

We also have four varieties of apple trees, which all seem to be heavy with fruit at the moment...

Much of the fruit has now fallen -  and the smell of sweet, cidery, fermented apples lends a special autumnal note to the air.

The old walnut tree takes centre stage in the collection, with its twisted trunk and massive crown...

We spent the summer patiently watching the walnuts develop on the tree....

.... waiting for the little brown veins to appear on the husks to show the walnuts were ripening and ready for picking.
Unfortunately a gang of local marauders were also watching for the signs....

And having spotted them before us, duly set up tag teams to pilfer all the low-hanging booty before we had chance to spot the disappearing harvest.  By the time we realised our folly, they had all but cleared the lower branches, knowing full well we would be hard-pressed to follow them to the upper reaches of the tree.  Our eventual prize was sadly depleted..

But they will be all the sweeter at Christmas knowing - not just that they were picked fresh from our own tree - but that next year we will be ready for our small gang of ginger thieves - and will beat them to the lower branches!