Foraging

A spot of foraging doesn't half lift the spirits!

Last evening I decided that the brambles along the roadway really needed their loads lightening, so after paying the rent I picked and grazed my way back home. (The rent book was put to excellent use fending off nettles which got in the way).

Then, leaving berries and rent book on the wall I climbed over the gate to see what my cottage looked like from the back, don't you find things are often quite alien if you look at them from a different angle?

Unfortunately (for you) I didn't have my camera with me, fortunately for me as I fell into a bit of a quagmire! I waded and slithered around the back yard and found an old boreen, a lot of fallen sticks and branches and a good bit of mud, also some midges. So this is what I returned with:

Loot

 A potential water butt, two (not very old) useful bottles for putting flowers in, a couple of fires' worth of sticks and:

Specially valuable loot

...an old tin pan suitable for use as an ash bucket, as well as the blackberries, of course.

Not bad huh? Saved me the price of an ash bucket, two bags of kindling and fruit for dessert and breakfast...I'll have to see how to rig up the water butt. And what did it cost me? A few hours of enjoyment clambering up and down the ditches, through a bit of a marshy patch in the peace and quiet of a windless evening discovering the lay and remains of the old homestead I'm living on. And some midge bites I suppose.

It can be a good life sometimes.

I must remember that.

Last Few Preparations for Winter

I saw this sign at a Garden Center! The Hub has been going round after Marey Horse in the field next door and shoveling muck for my veg and rose...so should I call him Lord Muck?

The old kennel is being slowly filled with firewood as we have the time and inclination to collect windfall and chop pallets:

The Hub is by way of installing a water butt for my vegebubbles- at present the lid is the old Company sign from his workplace, held down by a rosemary pot and some carnations!

Re-cycling and ingenuity howarya!! And the tank isn't exactly new either...yup! been skip-trawling...again!!

One last thing to do: scrape down and re-paint my orchestral froggie by the front door- isn't he fun? I collect things with a double bass so buying this was a temptation I didn't even try to resist- but, surviving several years in our salt- windy climate is taking its toll, poor thing...
I think there is one more batch of blackberries to pick along our lane, and I can use the windfall apples to make jam, some sloes to pick but I need to find a recipe to know how to preserve them, and Do Your Worst, Ye Gales!