News from the orchard

Yesterday during the routine check I noticed three generations of jasmine moth feeding on our young  trees. Not in all the orchards, but in a good half of them. There are some fat, green and big caterpillars almost ready to reshape themselves into moths, younger siblings in their teenage days, and barely visible youngsters of few millimeters in length. All enjoying a nice meal courtesy of the undersigned&family. It is quite a spreaded attack, so the plan was to spray them today, however the weather, windy and bearing an open promise of rain, does not seem to care that much about our needs. In fact, it is already some three weeks of english spring weather here: lots of wind, and raining every second day. Any intervention is therefore pointless, as the organic treatments need some time to produce an effect - a rain shower few hours after the application means having done a pointless effort. I guess sometimes one just needs to accept the facts as they are, since nature is not really into the wish-fulfilling business. You may have predicted many potential problems, tried to prevent them, worked tirelessly to achieve the best result, but yours is rarely the last word, having Ishtar/Gaia/Mother nature as interlocutor. It does however put the events of life, and one's influence on them, into perspective: anybody who has sailed through a proper gale or got caught by a storm whilst mountaineering will know that.

Anyway, Insha'Allah, in few weeks it will be harvest time!