under another sun

Lorraine and I made six jars of plum jam today, from our own plum tree. Very industrious of us.  I also did some admin for the podcast, arranging for an interview. Then I had a two hour meeting with the Understory Conversation folks, which proved interesting and very useful for me.  I also received the absolute bloody final proofs of the Mariscat pages, they looked very good. Looks promising in the great Pat and Maureen move too... Hopefully they will be installed in Seaford in the not too distant future. Innis and Rosie around at tea time, having spent a good deal of time with this afternoon with assorted raptors, as a birthday present for Innis, sharing lots of detailed information about raptors and their ways.  Naturally this needed to be further discussed over a beer in the Boot, followed by noodles in Amie's kitchen. I had a phô which was rather nice -- I don't remember having one of those before -- and it was quite pokey in the chilli department.   Below Innis...

Another attempt to interview Krishnan editor of Neon magazine today, and this time it was all fine, thank God and I could speak in joined up sentences and everything. And Krishnan was as interesting as he was the first time round. Much relieved. Lorraine out with Beth this afternoon, and I poured into jars another batch of the jam that Lorraine and I had started this morning, another six jars of Kenny Farm plum jam.  Spurred into action, I went for a walk this afternoon up to my usual haunts around Hollingbury Hillfort, and collected 1 kg of blackberries in a large tupperware tray. I managed to sting my hands lots on stinging nettles, which in turn set off the gnat bites from yesterday, and picked up several scratches. But it was all well worth it. There is something gleeful about foraging like this, good food for nothing, and I was forcibly reminded of Dave my grandfather, who liked nothing more than liberating fruit from the wild and (on occasion) other people's gardens.  ...