Then it was tea, tart and apple strudel in the afternoon sunshine

Bought for me by our dear Miami friend, Bonnie, who is a supreme (and canny) shopper. Three varieties of Gables grown tomatoes, a sprinkle of salt, some basil leaves and spring onions and an easy dressing half lemon juice and half olive oil. Hope my lunch guests enjoy it as much as I will.

Jeremy and our son were making the customary visits to the cemeteries where our grandparents, great grandparents and Jeremy’s great great grandmother are buried, which we do just before the Jewish New Year.

This is the stone (in Plashet cemetery in East Ham) commemorating Jeremy’s great great grandmother who was born in 1839 in the village of Gombin fifty miles from Warsaw. Gombin was famous for its wooden synagogue, which was burnt to the ground by the Nazis, and the Magen Avraham was born there in the 17th Century and wrote a famous commentary on Jewish Law. Three thousand Jews who lived in Gombin in 1939 were murdered in the holocaust including many of Jeremy’ a mother’s cousins.

I stirred and potted up the last jars of plum jam this morning.

It has to be enough as the shelves and cupboards are full. The cucumbers are still growing well so I took a large jar and pickled the cukes for sharing with visitors at the end of the month. They will be stored in the refrigerator.

Outside I caught one of the goslings and gave it a cuddle. He or she (I think we have one of each) was not pleased and honked in terror or anger.

The Singleton chick is suddenly growing very fast. I think he is a cockerel but I hope I will be wrong. He definitely has feathery, bantam feet unlike his Maran mother.

Jeremy has let them out onto the grassy area in front of the field shelter. Geese are grass grazers and there is some juicy herbage for them to enjoy all day.

Looks delicious………hope they enjoy eating the produce.

On our U3A walk from Waresly today we walked through a wonderful and well managed farm. There were three fields with free range chickens roaming happily on the pasture. Some were in a field with horses and some in a field with tree cover.

When you buy “free range” eggs check out if the poultry actually live in a shed with access (through small openings) to a restricted area outside or if they are truly, wonderfully living in the fresh air. There is a huge difference. I know from our birds that they have personalities, they like to be able to scratch around on the grass and they enjoy a variety of foods. Ours love the overripe Victoria plums that drop in the orchard.

The Bantie Maran went broody last week so we stuck six eggs under her and she sat happily in the nest box. Two days ago the Lemon Bantie decided to join her and took one of the eggs and sat on it.

They are now sitting, harmoniously, side by side. These are the two Bantie hens who sat on top of the goose eggs until they hatched back in May. They are a bonded, broody pair of surrogate mothers. Well done girls.

Look at those little goslings now …..so grown up and beautiful and quite independent.