Fruit for thought

You might already be sick and tired of hearing these lyrics by John Lennon by the time you read this article. Happy Xmas (War is Over) will have been playing nonstop on every radio, shopping centre soundtrack and TV advert for the past two months. Those words, however much I hear them, do stop me in my tracks without fail and make me reconsider how the past year has gone and what needs to be done in the year just starting. For us gardeners, it is a quiet time in terms of physical activity – perhaps a spot of pruning, or some clearing away of the last fallen leaves – but is a superb time for looking