Had to share my Sunday with you … it was nothing short of idyllic, simple and what a bonus – we didn’t spend a penny! The sun was peeping out from some very promised rainclouds and we thought (my partner Ben and I – oh, and Holly the terribe terrier – never to be left out of anything) we’d pick up a couple of carrier bags and go for a stroll along the lanes blackberrying, having spotted several promising spots on my way home one evening. It does seem a bit late in the season – we thought we’d missed the boat, but there has obviously been a late flush .. worth investigating, we thought.
How competitive are men? At first, we walked together, spotting a likely area of hedgerow and descending on it gleefully … but how soon this camaraderie disappeared ….. I noticed Ben wandering off ahead of me, and when he found a treasure trove of beautiful black jewels glistening and hanging temptingly in reach, he didn’t shout me over – oh no, into his bag they went …. it soon became a battle of wits for the sharp-eyed. Who would have the most in their bag at the end of this walk? Who could work out which was going to be best route across the field – which hedge to walk to ? Of course, being a woman I couldn’t resist the challenge and became equally sneaky and jubilant when I found a cache of these wonderful ripe beauties – defying brambles and nettles at my peril (and later regret, of course!) until both us were sporting purple fingers and scratches. Triumphantly we returned with heavily laden carriers to be tipped out into the sink for washing and sorting. Of course, comparisons were made – it was a draw, it was diplomatically decided – after much serious discussion about the amount of greenery we had both collected with our bounty.
So our Sunday evening meal saw a really simple apple and blackberry crumble for pudding, which we enjoyed all the more because most of it was free (our own apples, of course) and the extras are now sitting in the fridge, until we decide whether it should be blackberry gin for Christmas, (in view of the lack of sloes this year) or blackberry wine (which neither of us have ever had a stab at – and really quite fancy) or perhaps some delicious jam, which I discovered last year was much easier than I had thought…… watch this space!
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