Blackberry time

I love picking blackberries,wild cherry plums too, and they are both plentiful round here. Also kind people put free windfall apples outside their front gates to go with the fruit. I made eight jars of hedgerow jam and several jars of bramble jelly and also made crumbles and put them in the freezer. So satisfying.  I am very keen on jam making though I eat little of it myself. I just love to see a row of freshly filled and  labelled jars in the kitchen.

Some of the Darling family are camping in the Isle of Wight, where they go every year to a specially beautiful, quiet place on Shalfleet Creek which is always known as The Land.    I have never been a devotee of camping, but next week the campers and more of the tribe and I are renting a large house at Freshwater Bay.  There will be four generations there, with me as the eldest and three of the great grandboys will be the youngest.  We always try to congregate in the Island for Julia`s birthday on 21st August. We did it during her lifetime, and have done so ever since. We read some poems and perhaps have a bit of singing and dancing too.   We are like swallows and swifts who go back to the same spot each year.

I am going to travel on my free bus pass: Brighton to Portsmouth and then Ryde to Freshwater, but I will have to fork out for the ferry.   I am just doing because I like a challenge.   I always sit and read the Guardian on Saturdays, and then do the prize Cryptic crossword.  (Sister J does it as well and though  we sometimes have to appeal to son T for the really impossibly hard words in the end, we keep it going for days.) So I will just do the same as usual but on the bus.  I often have really interesting conversations on the buses too.       Having a bus pass has really enriched my life.     It is far more enjoyable than driving around in a car, but sadly there are too few buses in Ditchling, so I often have to drive to Brighton first. 

I am just waiting for the mobile library which only comes every three weeks now due to the cuts.   It is always a treat to climb up the steps into the cosy booklined van. I will need a good supply  for the holiday as I will not be able to scramble down cliffs or swim in the sea or go for long walks as I used to do, but can sit happily reading instead.           



  

What happened to June?

May is over and I hope for the best.....

I went to a gospel choir concert last night in Brighton,. What an experience. Well over a hundred singing their hearts out, and not only singing but waving, clapping swaying, jumping up and down. The huge hall was packed with families, babies, old grannies,   All very different from the sober choral events that I used to take part in at Winchester Cathedral in the old days. I went to it with a sober Quaker friend who used to belong to the Gospel choir. She said she loved it . I was amazed.   It was rather hot and loud for me but I enjoyed the exuberance of it all.

I had just recovered from my sleepless night on Thursday.  I didn`t intend to stay awake all night but I got so caught up in it all. I watched it on BBC4 , the alternative version with Richard Osman, David Mitchell and Paxman and it was hilarious.  I wonder what will happen now. I have begun to feel almost sorry for Mrs May, everybody is being so nasty about her. But it was such a joy to see our dear Jeremy vindicated and treated like a hero.  I was sad that the Greens didn`t do better but at least Caroline Lucas got in for Brighton with an even greater majority, she is the only one that talks any sense in my opinion.

I have been meeting up with my Syrian refugee friend every week, and trying to help her with her English homework.    Next Saturday, she has asked me to a party to celebrate the end of Ramadan, which is being held at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, and she is allowed to bring a guest. A benefactor is paying for it all.    Daughter J is going too. I feel totally unworthy because I haven`t fasted for a month and also I have done so little for the refugees anyway.    I am trying to think what to wear as they will all dress up to the nines and they love a bit of glitz.  I am hoping I will find something at my charity shop where I work on Monday afternoons.   I so enjoy my job there and can manage the till now without ringing up £100 instead of 10p  which I did at first, causing chaos with the cashing up.

I am organising a garden party for the residents here on Midsummer Day, 24th June. Brother P has done a lovely invitation for me on his computer (with colour pictures of strawberries and teapots) as that sort of thing is now entirely beyond me.    I was going to ask them all to bring a garden chair, but have now realised that none of us could actually carry a garden chair as far as the lawn. So I am hoping for help from grand daughter T and her friends. I now just pray for fine weather.   The gardens here are looking particularly splendid so I hope for the best.