It is always pleasant, indeed fulfilling, to do work outside. The combination of cold, snow, and wind (and other factors) has meant that I have done very little outside since November.

So getting out there and beginning a much delayed job of pruning the apple trees? Wonderful. I also got the yew pruned. More importantly, I managed to corral the multiflora rose.  Or, A multiflora rose. This particular one had taken over an area next to one of the small cottages. An area where I would like to plant an apple tree. I finally, simply, cut it down. (of course, it is still sitting there on the snow drift) Multiflora rose can easily get to twenty feet in length/height and several inches in diameter; the thorns can go through leather gloves, canvas jackets, and denim. It is a very common plant in New England; technically an invasive, it was originally planted by state highway departments and agricultural agencies to create impenetrable hedgerows and for erosion control on highways. Birds love it, both for the impenetrable tangle it creates and the berries it bears. It can take over an untended meadow within a decade, creating an area devoid of any other plant or animal life.

It has its uses, the flowers (while small) are moderately fragrant and are held in lovely clumps. The berries are small, but elegant, the birds love it. Few other plants will make as good a natural fence. You can Not walk through mature Multiflora rose. You probably can’t drive through it, without a tank.

Be that as it may. I want an apple tree there. Thankfully, it came off the building without damaging it. Still a far ways to go, but then, the apple tree isn’t here yet and the snow is still two feet deep there!