Update on cider, potatoes and squirrels

I am happy to report that the last batch of apple juice we pressed in November has turned out to be perfectly acceptable cider. The juice came entirely from the Bramley tree and, following instructions in a book, I added some tannin to emulate the taste that comes from the more bitter apples that cider makers use. I am keeping it under slight pressure in a pressure barrel, so the drink is now on tap.  It is probably about 6% alcohol by volume.

I dug up the last of my potatoes this afternoon fully expecting them to have been ravaged by slugs.  Happily this turned out to be quite wrong and here is the result (after the mud was hosed off them).

Finally, I had a look at the groups of daffodil bulbs that we planted in November.  I had covered them with tough plastic netting to deter squirrels.  However, as the following picture shows, a pesky animal chewed through the netting to get at a bulb.  It is not as if they even eat the damn things. Pretty though they may be, squirrels are a complete menace to this urban gardener.  So far, they have not attacked the other four groups.