January at Underhill

On Friday Elaine and I set off in the afternoon for an overnight at Underhill to pick any fruit that was ripe. We arrived to find a large tree down on the turnaround at the end of the road. I wondered why I could not see our gate as we drove down the hill.

There were two swamp wallabies grazing in the centre of the circular drive and they could jump the fence really easily to escape. At least they have done the mowing in the centre orchard yard.

As it was still quite light when we arrived we decided to start picking and as the only fruit ripe enough to pick were three varieties of plum (greengage, damson and unknown seedling plum) we were finished by an early bed time.

There are lots of fruit on some of the pears, peaches, and apples and a very small crop of quinces. They will all be ready in a month or two.

As we were packing to leave early Saturday morning we found a funnel web hole in one of the old holes from the proposed tank stand that we had filled with rocks. I sprayed it with surface spider spray as it was too close to the shed for comfort, especially with little kids around.