Harvest

Now I don't want to appear smug and after commenting on the winter stash  tendencies of our squirrels, but I'm just going to swank about my jam jars. Which are full. All of them . Barney and I have been tottering around the blackberry bush on the common everyday for weeks. Me picking a small bag of berries daily and him lying in wait for any very slow rabbits who might pass by... Now the berries have been converted into jam. Not only blackberry, but balckcurrant, mulberry ( due to husband's scrumping efforts on the tree at work), and strawberry, due to a lucky buy in the local shop. The slugs have enjoyed my strawberries mightily! Lovely Jo sent me an appropriate postcard too which made me laugh, we both have favourite jam jars which have been reused over the seasons.

Winter larder

In Lincolnshire our Horse Chestnut trees are stricken with two problems. One makes them ooze a sticky tar like substance and the other makes the leaves die. In our garden the  tree near the house looks very sick. Never the less there is an annual replanting process going on. People with  bushy tails  are very busy, rushing about, burying conkers... anywhere will do....flowerpots, the middle of the vegetable patch, in the lawn.... What few conkers we have are being distributed around the garden in a random fashion which denotes  a short memory span by our population of grey squirrels. They also steal peanuts and bury those. And walnuts and bury those too. And my tulip bulbs have disappeared, the alium bulbs never got chance to appear at all, and I can guess who dug them up! And I won't  mention the hazelnuts, but I can hear  the squirrels as they run along the sewing room roof, between the hazel tree and the  back garden, so I know what they are up to!

Winter larder

Now I don't want to appear smug and after commenting on the winter stash  tendencies of our squirrels, but I'm just going to swank about my jam jars. Which are full. All of them . Barney and I have been tottering around the blackberry bush on the common everyday for weeks. Me picking a small bag of berries daily and him lying in wait for any very slow rabbits who might pass by... Now the berries have been converted into jam. Not only blackberry, but balckcurrant, mulberry ( due to husband's scrumping efforts on the tree at work), and strawberry, due to a lucky buy in the local shop. The slugs have enjoyed my strawberries mightily! Lovely Jo sent me an appropriate postcard too which made me laugh, we both have favourite jam jars which have been reused over the seasons.