As with gardening, so with community woodlands. This has been a time to enjoy the fruits of our labours. Many of the apple trees in the community orchard in Kilmagad Wood have been covered with fruit and our third harvest has been the best yet. We’ve seen a wonderful increase from just one apple on the young trees in the first year, to several hundred this time. It’s great that the hard work of planting and pruning is producing results...

We filled a basket with apples and put it in Kinnesswood Shop and we’re grateful to them for making space for it and allowing people to help themselves. Of course, being a community orchard, the idea is that people should pick their own and if we get a good crop next year we’ll make sure everyone knows that they can do that.

There’s a huge range of fruit trees in the orchard , bearing eaters and cookers in every colour shape and size. We’re still learning about their different ripening times and some take ages. If you walk up through the orchard you may yet find some apples there, as well as hazelnuts on the bushes.
Portmoak Moss is also a rewarding place to walk at this time of the year. Red squirrels have been spotted regularly and there’s a huge array of mushrooms and toadstools. The Portmoak Community Woodland Steering Group have no wish for the fine autumn days to end but we are waiting for a spell of wet weather to give us the right conditions to replant the sphagnum moss which we rescued before the mulching work in August. The exact method hasn’t been decided but one or two of the committee are rather keen on firing it across the bog through water pistols, so watch out for strange antics in the weeks ahead.