Picking Bramley apples and dividing them into three piles. One pile too bruised for us but fine for Lucy. One pile perfect and ready to wrap in newspaper and store in a cardboard box and the remaining apples to be made into crumbles and compote over the next week or two. Then it was over to the hedges, where we picked nearly two kilos of sloes.

We washed and bagged 600g of the fruit at a time and put three bags into the freezer where they will stay until I buy some gin and sugar. Then out will come the large glass jars and in will go the fruit and sugar and alcohol, to be shaken daily until all the sugar dissolves and then the jars will be kept in a dark kitchen cupboard for at least three months. We drank nearly two bottles of sloe gin with our guests at the weekend. My tots were purely medicinal as I was dealing with an autumn cold. But what delicious medicine it was!