Country diary: the orchard is fragrant with fallen fruit

St Dominic, Tamar valley: The best keepers among the apple varieties have been carefully gathered and stored in the mouse-proofed shedThe steep way up to James and my sister Mary’s documented orchard of local varieties is littered with shoals of trampled apples – too small to have been much temptation for the youngsters who dared to scrump in our grandparents’ day. Clusters of berries cover a 50ft holly beside an outgrown Norway spruce, while hazels in the sheltering hedge bank