On 28th November the picture here was of many apples still hanging from an apple tree in a small back garden that I pass as I walk into town. The picture this week is of the same tree, taken through a gap in the fence.

I don’t know how to talk about this. A little while ago there was a rather nice small leaved lime tree in another front garden that I also pass as I walk into town. That tree has been cut down. In that case I suspect I know why – lime trees encourage aphids and aphids excrete honeydew which is very sticky and falls from the sky onto cars parked under it causing ugliness. But who came first?

Another example of the same sort of thing was a recent poll to decide what tree to plant in a local public space. The choice was mainly between a fruiting cherry or a flowering cherry. Of course I voted for the fruit tree – which will of course also have flowers – but the verdict was decisively for the one that did not produce a crop, but was simply pretty.

What is beauty? This is a question I often ask myself as I look at my garden. At the moment there are many dead stems and leaves, the remains of last year’s perennial plants. There is a part of me that is desperate to get out there and tidy it all up, the old professional gardener part. But I don’t. I look at the blue tits searching for insect eggs on the old mullein stems, or goldfinches eating the teasle seeds. And I think about all the other interactions that are taking place out there that I don’t see. I am finding new ways to look, new ways to see.

I read somewhere, I can’t remember where, about a family who had two apple trees. They produced all their own food the year round, but the apple trees were their only source of income, their only cash crop. They lived in a different time, of course, and their need for money was small, but the apple trees provided what they needed.

I’m sure all the apples from the cut down apple tree were very inconvenient, but we must consider whether it is time to look at the natural world in a different way. It is after all the natural world that, one way or another, fulfils our every need.