STRAWBERRIES AND CHAMPAGNE.

I know of few better ways to start the day than with a bowl of muesli and yogurt topped off with wild strawberries. Strawberries collected fresh from the garden, still with that chill of morning dew rather than the fridge. Money can’t buy this and such fruit do not come packed in little plastic containers. In years pasted I have cursed the invasiveness of the wild strawberries but being unable to be up on Lewis and having to spend the summer in Brittany has meant the garden has once again received my attention. Due to an exceptionally dry period the task of getting back some sort of control has been easier than expected with fewer weeds growing back in the powder dry soil. Watering has been essential and now I’m beginning to taste the benefits and am already eating Swiss chard and mange tout peas.
The dry conditions has also meant no problems with slugs or snails as they hide away in whatever cool damp spot they can find. Having left the garden fallow for the past decade it was pleasing to see a healthy population of slow worms plus a mass of millipedes and a few very large old toads. Creeping sow thistle has been the only real problem with hours spent breaking up the soil and trying to remove every last trace, then digging several more times as the inevitable tiny remaining rhizomes start to regrow. The potatoes went in first in late March and look strong and healthy with hopefully plenty going on below ground. I’ve planted loads of cherry tomatoes outside and hoping that blight will not be a problem, certainly if it continues to remain dry. I had to restart the strawberry patch with fresh plants from a neighbour so there are not many this year but he has them by the bucket full and jam making is in full swing.

When trees are under stress then flowering is the first option of survival and back in April the valley was full of cherry blossom. When the wind came great clouds of white filled the sky and the roads in places received a powdering of snowy petals. Unfortunately the fruit setting has been minimal with many apple trees have no fruit at all for the second year. The Elder trees however have been glorious and my first batch of Elderflower champagne is ready to drink. This is the taste of summer and while my morning tipple might be an infusion of freshly gathered mixed herbs the rest of the day my thirst is quenched with champagne.