End of the apricot season

The apricot harvest as of Tuesday (plus a jar of crème de menthe in the works). In the back are two big jars of dried apricots, which actually represent as much fruit as the rest of the jars and bowls together. I may be set for jam, and it's not even blueberry season yet.

We had a pretty violent thunderstorm pass through in the night, leaving the ground carpeted in apricots. They rot so fast once they touch down, there was nothing to save in the morning among the windfalls. Jérôme came over and we harvested many kilos more fruit - about 6 kilos to distribute to friends and colleagues at work, another 8-9 for him.

This branch full of the most lovely fruit is alas on the damaged side of the tree, and will have to come down.

Here we are with the downed branch cut and cleared away. That whole part of the yard is much sunnier! My rhododendron isn't going to be happy about that. About a third of the tree is gone.

Close up you can see the damage. The rotten wood and fat white worms go pretty far in. There's no way to cut it out without just cutting down the tree.

On the other side, there's a major limb that was taken off before I moved in. We couldn't tell how unstable the remaining branch is.

I've had such delicious fruit from this tree! But I doubt it can be saved. It's time to call the rental agency and tell them one of their trees needs professional help. Up to them to fix it or pull it out or just leave it to fall over one day.
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