I was looking at our old apple trees today and thinking it was getting to be time to give them a good shake. Our baby bramley didn't flower at all this year, but the other new ones could probably do with thinning in a few weeks.

We've got a new morello cherry this year, too, which has lots of fruit forming. I suspect I'll have to net that before the birds notice it.

I'm plotting a strawberry bed, and wondering if the thing about painting small stones to look like strawberries really works. The idea is that you put them around the plants before the fruit gets ripe and the birds try to eat them and give up, so they don't bother with the actual fruit. If it works, it would be handy!