Apple Wars

Fight For The Springs

   Yesterday evening I was picking apples in the garden and the memories came flooding back to me of those warm days in our summer holidays when as village kids we would collect down Ashwell Springs. The springs is a area in the centre of the village where the natural seven springs bubble freezing cold clear water up from the ground, the start of the local river and a large shallow gravel bedded pool where all the local kids learn to fish with those cane handled nets brought from the local store. Where mums take their children to sit eating picnics on the grass banks and where the famous apple fights took place.
   In the very early 70's when I was around 9 or 10 years old there were some old gardens running beside the springs, these must have been used by local families to grow veg and fruit like we use allotments today. These gardens were all fenced off and very much over grown but the fact there were a lot of old apples trees remaining meant us kids were never going to stay one side of any wooden fencing.
   It was on warm summer evenings after hours of playing football that some of the great apple fights were held. There we were, around 20 or 30 kids all around the same age, soaking wet plimsolls, grazed knees and stinging nettle rashes where we had been collecting our own little pile of apples. We were split into two side each side taking position on opposite sides of the water, some taking cover behind some of the great Ash trees, others behind bramble bushes, all waiting for that first apple to be thrown, that first organic bullet to smash against ancient bark.
   Within minutes it's started, apples fly in all directions, kids running everywhere dodging apples as they try to find new cover, cries from the unlucky few who get hit and even the old little soldier falling into the water only to be hit by the barrage of flying apples as they return to the bank. It was bloody wonderful, the best game we ever played and the perfect way to round of a summers day. The battles would only last around 20 minutes until we had run out of apples then it was time for home after most of us would kneel by the springs to drink the cold fresh water.
   It's funny but I can still remember those days down to the smallest detail yet ask me what I did a year ago and I couldn't tell you, maybe the injuries help me remember, I even remember one evening falling from the top of the fence into a large bed of stingers then running home crying with my face and arms covered in stings, only to be told off by my mum for climbing the fence in the first place, oh what a hard life us kids lead haha !
   The last time I stood over the springs there was hardly any water in there and a lot of the banks that used to be nice grass areas are now overgrown, such a shame really. You hear the parish council saying they want to keep the springs maintained and keep it as a nice wild area where families can sit, well do it ! get the old banks cleared and let people sit on the grass, not eveyone wants to sit on a wooden bench placed here and there joined by so called woodland paths, what a joke. I have to admit it really does hurt sometimes when I see how my old village is run and who is running it, but as long as I'm living here I guess I can't do a thing to help change it.
   Well I'm off to take the car to the garage, yet another small problem to get sorted this month, it seems every month comes up with more worries but we seem to get through them. I always bike back from dropping the car off so I'll be getting some morning exercise today as well as later. lots of beads to make today and some to list this evening so a busy day ahead.