No apples for Apple Day this year

Has anyone noticed that there aren't many apples in the village? It has been a very strange year. The trees in village gardens and old orchards are usually groaning with fruit. One garden has about 35 trees, all old varieties, and only one tree, the Spartan, had a crop.

Those apples that are around have codling moth and are a bit scabby. Maybe it was the warm and dry summer or maybe there was a late frost. One person suggested that Wassail hadn't done the trick this year.

So Apple Day will have to skip a year and return, hopefully, in 2020.