under another sun

A tetchy text from our next door neighbour, who has to wash his cars because of dust from our building work. The same neighbour whose house for the first two years of our stay was a building site, and we politely put up with months of dust, plastic waste, tools, etc coming over the fence, not to mention the constant noise and inconvenience. It made us both very angry.  I consciously had to calm down for the good of my health. He texted a bit later more politely and we replied to that one, deciding like Michelle Obama to go high when they go low.  I wanted to have some morning calm to write in, but I felt to irritable, so after speaking to Mum, I went off for an early walk. Seven miles in total today. I am now on a streak of fifteen days, and in the last seven days have walked over 40 miles. It feels good to be getting back to my old habits, and I am listening to audiobooks as I go, and my knee which had a moment a few months ago is holding up. Still on the biography of Muriel ...

Up and after two days of pubs, I prepared breakfast and thought about living in an enclosed monkish life contemplating and praying quietly. Lorraine a bit snuffly and coldy. Having eaten and doing some laundry we repaired to the garden and lurked in the open air. Another hot day, but the forecasts say rain is likely in a few days.    In the afternoon I went to Morrisons, bought some jam sugar with pectin, and a bar of chocolate for Lorraine, and then made off to various places where I'd seen blackberries on my travels. I picked a kilo of them, which doesn't sound much but takes plenty of time. The berry gods took their payment in thorn tips in my hands that are impossible to get out, and my shins being stung a good deal by stinging nettles. There is a glut of fruit this year, all a month too early and many of them dried up due to the climate crisis of a summer we have been having. So far August has seen 1% of the average rainfall for the south east of England. I noticed big ju...

Now that the schools are going back, the weather was warm and sunny. After Lorraine had eaten breakfast with Sam, I went off a-foraging. Armed with Tupperware, I went to the first of the places I identified the day before -- but did not need to go further afield, as I managed to get just over a kilo of blackberries from the first of my sites. Blackberries accomplished I found the crab apple tree on the side of the hill, and picked up early fallen but fine apples. Their sourness shrivels your face into a repulsive puckering but they are bursting with apple flavour.  Walking home I thought how a small but judicious addition or small crab apple pieces would add not only pectin, but a welcome note of tartness to the sweet niceness of the blackberry. This would be a jam that didn't mutter hi to you as you ate it, but bellow a full blown Howdy ! on your tastebuds .    As I approached home, I noticed how tingly my hands were with all the nettle stings on my hands, not to mentio...