Three years delayed party!
Pirate, and some of the others had been employed by Seaboard World, which was taken over by Flying Tigers...which was taken over by FedEx.
He sported a FedEx shirt...a Seaboard tie....and a Flying Tigers uniform jacket. Which was successful and broke the ice!!
Plenty of chat before, during and after the meal....and a bonus of seeing a dozen roe deer outside the window of the pub's dining room! No picture of them unfortunately...they were definitely camera shy!
Too busy to write!!
Getting tickets bought, now trying to tie all the ends off, get jobs done, apples pressed, juice processed...
Pirate has been busy working out how to get the workshop weatherproof...
So a trip out was welcome....and he needs to ride the boards every six months to keep his accreditation.
Man at speed!!
We walked across the field, down the big hedge...which is covered in apples and pears....
We picked half a carrier bag of some fairly sweet crab apples for a neighbour to make bramble and apple jelly..Scriby Apples in Ayrshire Scots.
Then up to the farm on the hill that we see between us and the Isle of Arran.
We took a bottle of last year's apple juice made from apples growing by one of his fields, and damson plum chutney made from damsons from a croft on his land...that in 1850 had 78 acres...a considerable holding then.
He nearly emigrated to New Zealand along with others of his family when he was young....and I think that two of his children have followed their relations to Nelson.
At 81 he no longer has cattle, just 40 hens or so for eggs and overwinters hill sheep on his fields.
His wife is a vet, and also a brilliant gardener! For the first time, he showed us their front garden...it is fantastic, not huge, but with paths and sheltered corners..and a good windbreak fence!! They have an open day for charity every year, and are open in the summer by appointment.
Then Pirate and him talked tractors!!!! Before we realised that lunchtime had passed..
First stop was the special apple tree. We picked another large bagful..they ripen fully after picking...the ground was covered with windfalls.
This tree has been noticed by apple specialists looking for Scottish varieties..they took lengths for grafting and are returning soon to take DNA samples to see if it is linked to any known variety.
After that, we headed towards home...via the croft with damsons, as Farmer told us of the trees that still had fruit....
The bottom two feet of the croft building walls are still there. It would be a good place to live...but was probably badly affected by the coal mining on what is now Hannahston nature reserve, just up the burn from it.
A goodly bag of plums collected...and home, via our neighbour with the Scriby apples she wanted plus a share of the damsons.
We were lucky to stay reasonably dry...we started our walk after a morning hail shower and it started to rain again once we were home!
Meanwhile we carry on!
The workshop has the first guttering...and that gave half a wheelie bin of rainwater overnight!! Mostly we have been finding indoor jobs...trying to reduce clutter, sort papers and the like. Hopefully Pirate has sorted a few things to be sold on fleabay!!
There may be some more production in the larder....
But if there is rain...and a little sun....
Worth it!
Two medium bags of runner beans are in the freezer as well, as with the change of weather fewer are growing. I am leaving the rest to ripen and hope to have enough to grow next year as well as eat as beans, not the whole pod.
Today it has been Washing Machine weather....showers, wind, sun.....so more work indoors, plus collecting some old tongue and groove panelling from a neighbour. This will go over the insulation in my workshop and make shelving and cleaning easier!!
The garden is looking decidedly battered by the wind and rain and I don't know if we will have many sweetcorn cobs worth eating. It was supposed to be a shorter variety, , but looks as if it wants to outdo the sunflowers!!
Pirate has started setting up the turbo trainers in the back bedroom...this winter we don't want to get overweight and unfit!! Preserving our health!!
Again we split the journey, 220 miles the first day and 270 today....today was mostly motorway...and boring! But at least we have the knowledge that the journey was done as economically as possible. With stops, today was 6½ hours....and the garden gave us a welcome!
Tomorrow high winds and heavy rain are forecast between 8am and 2pm......
Welcome home!!
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