Yipeee - it's now September and rather than lament the loss of a so called non-existent summer my thoughts turn to berries or more precisely the harvesting of. For the last few weeks I've been watching greedily for ripening elderberries, obsessed with the idea of turning as much free bounty into wine ( a cost cutting exercise on our grocery bill of course....hmmm). A simple enough ponderment it would seem-or is it? First, I realised I would need to find a suitable copse of elderberries - preferably local or at least accessible on my journey home from work, not too close to busy roads or the cocked leg of a hapless dog and definitely not on the edge of some life threatening precipice (not so likely in Suffolk!). I knew I'd seen many clusters of ripening berries along my route but they proved harder to spot when I was actually looking selectively for potential vintage - even more tricksy when also attempting to avoid ridicule of my already branded 'fun' driving. I then considered that if I were to succeed in my berry collecting task I would need a suitable vessel for the juicy delights, maybe some cutting implement and quite possibly a 'helpful elf' with longer legs and arms. Not too much to ask then - as the boot of the car already looks like a garden shed a few extra bits and bobs are negligible.
To cut a long story short, I found what I thought looked a suitable 'berry-mine' but the opportunity has not yet arisen to gather in earnest. Boo hiss!
It would be easy to flay oneself on the failure to manage this simple task, but you know- there is always next year. We may very well miss the elderberries this time around but we found a great source of blackberries!
(I'm currently watching the hedgerows again, for there will be sloes and rosehips and I should not forget that plums are peaking at present. Maybe then, I should also be voyeur for the little stalls and tables you find at the roadside in rural England - encouraging the honest exchange of a reasonable fee for the abundant windfalls!)
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