The citrus are in fruit AND blossom….sheer heaven!  I think citrus blossom is completely intoxicating…..

Lemon trees were among the first we planted here – I had a mad idea (there have been many, as I’m sure you can imagine!), that it would be a wonderful idea to train lemons up wooden poles at The Dairy.  You see, on our honeymoon, (at that stage not so many years before), we’d enjoyed the most divine evening in a tiny ristorante, in the middle of a field on the island of Capri.  I remember being dropped off by car, in the middle of nowhere and following a track….which brought us to a building of crumbling stone smothered in lemons, & trained on a pergola….it was May, the evening was balmy and we were enveloped in the scent of lemon blossom & hundreds of dangling elongated fruit….

Well, why wouldn’t it work here?  Lack of water for a start!  I have discovered lemons to be amongst the most difficult things to establish, but perseverance makes you appreciate each hard-won fruit even more.  I’m hoping we’ve turned the corner and are destined for a couple of decent trees –  I’ll never have my lemon-covered loggia, but I can waft along with scent of citrus blossom on the breeze for a month or two each year…..