Apple-blossom in the dunes

[bunn]

I celebrated Theo having finished his ear medication and me almost having recovered from flu, with a trip to Freshwater West beach. We walked through the dunes behind the beach and found some very low, huddled apple trees covered in blooms. I'm hoping to remember to pop back and see if these actually have apples, and if so, what they look like.

I have an apple tree in the garden which is a Cornish variety, but seems to be finding the wild Pembrokeshire winds a bit too much. I'm thinking I might take some cuttings from the Fresh West apples and try a spot of grafting, since they seem so blessed with blossom.

The blackthorn was still in bloom in parts of the dunes, too.


It rained quite a bit yesterday, and I was a bit surprised to find a kind of swamp had formed! Theo had hared about like a loon for some time by this time, so he was pleased to get a drink and go paddling. None of the trees was much taller than I am.


Eventually we came up out of the dunes and across the open meadows behind them, which were all full of cowslips daisies and I think other flowers, but the meadows were no-dogs to protect the skylarks, so we stuck to the fenced route rather than inspecting them closely.



We found the seaweed-drying hut! Photos of this hut seem to feature heavily in ads for West Wales, which seems a bit odd given how small it is. Apparently the women of a village a couple of miles away would collect the seaweed from the beach and dry it in these huts (this is described as the last survivor, but I think 'reconstruction' would probably be fairer, this is not longlasting architecture) . Then when it was dry, it would be sent off to Swansea to be made into laverbread.

On the face of it this seems slightly odd because Swansea is on the sea, and there's a ton of seaweed-growing coast nearer than Pembrokeshire. Perhaps seaweed on the more industrialised areas of the coast wasn't clean enough to eat?


Rosie stayed home and napped. But she is walking much better and has eaten a lot of chicken today.

Comments

[zdenka]

Lovely flowers! And yay for happy dogs.

[chainmailmaiden]

Those are lovely pictures, the blackthorn in our hedge is out at the moment too. It always looks so nice I'm glad I planted it. Hope Rosie continues to improve, she looks very relaxed there on her snuggly bed.

[anerea]

Aww! Hello Rosie cutiepie! And oh my word, your dunes are beautiful. Wild applies!! How marvellous, I love that! I hope your grafts are successful. Thanks for sharing your and Theo's walk with us.