Tonight there are beetroots and cucumbers to pickle…..

There are also ripening red currants and pounds of raspberries and blackcurrants And whilst I was cutting the grass this morning and helping myself to handfuls of fruit to “keep me going”, Jeremy and Chris were fencing around the pond with a view to moving the geese to a new home.

We have moved the goose off the nest, again, as the eggs are a week overdue to hatch so are no longer viable.  Ducklings, calves and lambs but goslings elude The Gables…..for now.  Stuart from Stamford, (who is decorating the inside of the barn), took photos of the nest in the top of the far gable.  The chicks are still alive and lustily calling for food and the parents are flying in and out and feeding them.  His view is that tthey are NOT swallows as the nest is made of straw and moss and he thinks swallows’ nests are made of mud. He has seen six babes in the nest and the parents will be relieved to know that the painting and plastering is nearly finished and by next week the scaffolding will be down and the birds can have the roof to themselves again.

Outside cherries are ripening and the netting has kept the birds from eating the crop.  I await a stone pitter that I ordered this week and then it will be a night of cherry pitting so that I can freeze the fruit or make jam.

A plaintive baa..ing from the field alerted me to the antics of Barney and Larry.  The naughty calves had pushed through the wire and were trying to play with the newborn lamb.  I ran across the field and chased them back to their mothers, Lucy and Beattie, and now the lamb is sleeping cuddled up to its mother, Pinky.  Pinky ( yes she has a sister called Perky) even let Jeremy stroke the lamb just now.

Break over.  Back to some weeding and  fruit picking.