Far Lands

On Saturday we put the chicks into the main chicken house. At dusk we let the other 6 chickens back into the run, and then said 'Good Night'! Fairly traumatic for them and us. The pecking order is a very literal thing in the chicken house.

The thing about fruit trees – a good thing admittedly – is that even a smallish tree is likely to provide copious amounts of fruit. In particular, apples, pears and plums. Two trees or more, and unless you’re the old woman who lives in a shoe, you’re going to struggle to use them. You’ve eaten them for breakfast, lunch and dessert, and snacks in-between. You’ve made pies and crumbles and tarts and charlotte and tarte tatin . You’ve baked muffins and cakes. You’ve jarred up sauces and chutneys and jams. You’ve made fool, fritters and finicky pastries. You’ve brewed wine and made liqueurs. You’ve stored them on every shelf in the garage and you’ve risked botulism to put them in huge jars. You’ve covered them in toffee and shoved them on sticks. You’ve stewed, baked, puréed and fried them. You’ve bobbed them. Lambasted them. You’ve jumped up and down on them and pressed them into juice. You’ve given them away, lobbed them at the postman and thrown them for the dog.   ...

Just back from a long weekend walking (our) next section of the Pennine Way. Cowling to Hawes, about 50 miles in 3 days. Wet and windy - like being at home.

At the weekend we made a dozen entries into the Village Show. Runner beans, French beans, tomatoes x 2, roses, apples, honey, rhubarb and ginger jam, blackcurrant jam, a cucumber, courgettes and . . . this is like the tray game - there's one more and I can't remember it . . . GOT it: a Turk's Head squash (we debated which category, 'rude and amusing' or 'other' (we opted for 'other' for fear of very rude (and common) deformed potatoes)). These were our results: 1st prizes: honey, courgettes, roses 2nd prize: apples ( Katy / Laxton's Superb , King of the Pippins ) 3rd prize: cucumber Impressive, eh? Not really. Only 9 people and a dog entered, and there was no honey category - I had to phone up and ask for a honey category to be added (only one entry - us).