May 2007. Looking northwards. Polytunnel with shelterbelt to break the strong south-westerly winds. The flowering trees are crabapples ('John Downie'), the other two very small fruit trees are an apple and a plum.

Mid June 2012. The polytunnel looks very shaded but that's because the photo was taken at almost 21.00 and the sun is coming from the North-West (it's almost summer solstice - the "turning of the year", probably a very strange concept for anyone living near the equator ...).

October 2001. Looking West, up the drumlin, the eastern side of which we live on. You can see how the wind swept in from the southwest. In 2001 we had just started using electric netting to let the goats graze areas formerly inaccessible to them because they would have killed the trees. Two young pear trees are visible in the top left of the photo.

June 2012. The trees (willows, ash) have grown well and are sheltering the entire hillside (and our cottage) from the West. The willows in front were planted to shelter the tender early pear blossom from harsh easterly winds and have already been coppiced twice for firewood. Hidden behind that wall of willow are not just the Conference pear visible in the first photo ('Concorde' pear can be seen on the very left) but also another European pear ('Gorham'), 2 Asian pears ('20th Century', 'Chojuro'), a few willows that we pollard every 7 years, and 2 plums ('Czar', 'Opal'). A chicken run was located under these trees for a few years. The chickens have just moved to a new area and the bare, well fertilized ground is used to grow potatoes. I also just got my hands on a wildflower mix for bees that should do nicely there.
Incidentally, one of the goats in the first picture is still around, now aged 15.

January 2002. A small section of the "woodland" sheltering the property from the East. The previous owner had planted some ash, sycamore, hawthorn, larch and oak trees in 1994 which we underplanted/edge planted with crabapples, black and red currants, Jostaberries, Worcesterberries, hazelnuts/cobnuts, red dogwood, a Black walnut, a few horse chestnuts, a bunch of willows, some sea buckthorn, shrub roses and lots of daffodils towards the driveway. There is also a chicken-run in this plot. The young tree on the right is a Siberian crabapple (Malus communis X Robusta).

June 2012. The red dogwood was coppiced last winter for firewood and woodchips. The red-leaved tree in the background is a myrobalan plum that has yet to yield any fruit. But the Siberian crab (with a blackcurrant in front of it) has yielded quite reliably - the little apples make superb jelly.