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September 2003
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.. or in our part of Hampshire, pretty warm days and still no sign of the tomatoes ripening.
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| Some of the chilis. | A lot of our produce we dehydrated with this marvellous new toy. Coming downstairs in the morning to the scent of overnight-dried strawberries.. wow. | ||
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| Our next door neighbour told us months back that there once had been a wonderful vine covering half the garden... We found it, neglected but still fruiting, at the back of the garden spreading into the lane. | At the end of September we harvested 15 kilos of grapes. That's three carrier bags or, for a vine that's been chopped off at the base and left to fend for itself, a hell of a lot. | ||
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| Chilis - pickled for posterity, or, for us. | Things the squirrels planted (in our patio pots): seven sunflowers and two peanut plants. All did rather well. | ||
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| The Wilderness gathering - organized by Bison Bushcraft, a weekend of traditional skills. We went on the Wild Food Walk, and ate sweet mint, 'fat hen', elder berries and rosehips. The teepee you see here has a natty wood burning stove in it. Handy for the distinctly cool British winter evenings... Sheer coincidence apparently - the Bison Bushcraft weekend was held at Bush farm , which farms Bison. Very nice steaks and burgers were purchased... | |||
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| Flit, the little owl at Thames valley falconry centre, who is used for displays. He's a rather antsy little so and so. Are you lookin' at me? Are you?? | Me with Flit. He's tiny, but don't cross him. Skitter (my adopted owl) isn't 'manned up' so can't be handled in this way. | ||
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| P's parents on their birthday balloon ride. Various stages, after the last of which the three 'children' went to the pub. It was fascinating to help inflate the balloon, though. And note key use of a Land Rover. | |||
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| My greenhouse, at stages through its construction. It's plastic, but rather effective. And no sooner had I thought, eight by six, that'll be huge, than we filled it with lemon grass: the five foot high stuff making our patio into a jungle has now been given its winter home.... Maybe I can cram a few seedlings in next spring. | |||
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We went out at twilight with torches and carrier bags into the park next door... and found blackthorn bushes. VERY carefully we picked a few pounds of sloes, and this is the result - the start of a jar of sloe gin. Picked in September, it should traditionally be ready by Christmas. | ||
This page was last updated on 12-10-2003.
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