Autumn feels the heat

I’VE just been checking an oak tree at the bottom of my little wood. It grew from an acorn from the Killarney National Park and I planted it out, as a young sapling, about 25 years ago.

Since then it has thrived and, with the help of a little pruning of the lower branches, turned into a beautifully formed tree.

But the most satisfying thing is that this year, for the first time, it produced acorns of its own. There weren’t many of them but then this is very young for an oak tree to fruit —- they’re often 50 to 80 years old before they produce a decent crop of acorns. It was early December and the acorns had all gone. I couldn’t work out whether something had eaten or whether they’d fallen off into the undergrowth.