No rain today, so we ventured out...

I walked back into the kitchen after taking M. Hamid a cup of coffee, and caught a glimpse of a tractor out of the corner of my eye.

"That's a bit close to the house" popped into my head, so I took a close look; Claude was taking away the twiggy bits from when we cleared out under the two walnut trees by the road.

The tractor looked like one of those cartoon illustrations to show the destruction/devastation wreaked by deforestation, tearing off with a mouthful of vegetation!

When he came back for seconds, I took the photo, and here I think it looks like one of those deep-ocean eels: all teeth and no eyes.

Either way, it saved us masses of trouble, so I hope Claude likes the freshly-picked walnuts!
They are a pale creamy colour - very impressive, and much softer textured and sweeter than they will be in a few weeks time.

Not impressive was my "haul" of elderberries; so few that I'm embarrassed to post a picture. I'm going to make a 'micro' bottle of schnapps to see if it's any good, and if so I will get my act together next year!

I'm currently freezing all my fruit before making liqueurs; one post I read asked why anyone would do that if they didn't have to...

The answer is that in the 'blind' tasting, the frozen fruit performed best for flavour. Pricked fruit was the most colourful, so this year I'm freezing my damsons etc and then pricking them - hopefully the best of both worlds.

Not going to prick my elderberries [obviously], but someone recommended freezing them for at least a week, so they may break open of their own accord.

The early-harvest sloes got squished!