309. First snow of 2017



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186. Nuts . . .

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It is still very early days for our orchard - this year our harvest will consist of 3 pears and a handful of hazelnuts. But the hazelnuts are good ones - cobs and filberts, from a Webb's Prize Cob and a White Filbert respectively. And, what's more, we have beaten the squirrels to them. The squirrels seem to have concentrated on the plum tree (original, not in our new orchard) and many of the surrounding sycamores have bits of plum sitting on their more horizontal branches.  Of course, as John Seymour memorably wrote, it is OK to lose crops to marauders such as squirrels and pheasants . . . as long as you eat them . The freezer now has a fair bit of (plum-fattened) squirrel-meat in it. 
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73. Stuck for something to read?

Try a William Boyd novel. They hook you from the start, have interesting and original plots and are not overly long. What's more there are lots of them, and relatively easy to find in second-hand bookshops. Perfect for a holiday read, if you are stuck on a difficult novel or just want something a bit different. His books sometimes feel like he has written them with the aid of a special book-kaleidoscope: twist it again, 10 bizarre plot-lines fall out and Boyd glues them together in 300 pages. Try one!
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339. Raking up bilberries

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Bilberries or w(h)imberries or whortleberries are the UK's rufty-tufty equivalent of the North American blueberry. You have to collect them yourself, and they're not for the starving hungry. Bilberries grow on wild moorlands, are very small and are difficult to collect in any number. A rake helps. Seriously. At the weekend we met my brother near Llangollen, and went bilberry raking. One drawback with raking: you also rake a lot of other stuff up so processing takes a while.   Scores on the doors: 2 hours of raking, 2 hours of processing, 2.3 kilos of bilberries.   CHICK STOP PRESS *Too smelly for boiler room, now in turkey house.*
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