Saturday's tree-planting in Wolvercote Community Orchard was ace. Despite the weather before and after, we had a glorious sunny morning for the event which we've got more information on here.
Just as we were planting a tree in Oxford to make a connection between us and Sipson, where Richard Cox originally bred the Cox's Orange Pippin, the actual breed we planted revealed some interesting local connections. Acting on nursery advice, Julia wisely picked the "Sergeant Peggy", which we were told was a local tree.
But we were all surprised when orchard organiser Peter Adams revealed during the planting that the Sergeant Peggy was more of a local than we thought: it was originally bred only a few miles away, in Eynsham, by the local Wastie family! There's a road named after the Wasties and their ancestors still live in the area. In fact, the orchard already had a "Peggy's Pride" bred by the same Fred Wastie, so we hope that Sergeant Peggy feels at home.
Anyway, local MPs Evan Harris and Andrew Smith were both equally charming and game for a laugh, and cheerily filled in pretty much the whole of the ground around the tree: the video you see wasn't just for show, and they put a good bit of oomph into their shovelling.
Wolvercote is in Evan's constituency but very close to the boundaries of Andrew's and of a certain David Cameron's. Unfortunately the latter couldn't make it a cross-party triumverate (probably tired from turning on Witney lights the night before), but we hear he's sponsored a tree in Sipson, so that makes up for it.
Hang on: if elected representatives from all three parties are against the third runway, who's actually for it again? Anyone?
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