Size is everything when identifying the plum family, they all start off green and go a near purple black colour. It’s the first to develop a derrière, ie the v groove cup associated with a British plum. The bullace is a little larger than the sloes and smaller than a damson. It’s still round like a sloe whereas a damson is more oval. For size it’s between the top section of your middle finger and thumb, 1.5-2.5cm. Grows on bushy often thorny stems and makes a pleasant slightly sweeter alternative to sloe gin. It can also be made into jams and added to other fruit in a jam. You want pretty much equal quantities of sugar and fruit to make a jam.

I like to freeze mine for a few days minimum to improve the sweetness, this also softens the fruit giving you more juice. You can freeze for longer with little deterioration. The fruit contains a stone so will make a better seived jelly, and a really tasty leather.

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So often mistaken for Japanese knotweed by the uninitiated until it flowers, the Himalayan Balsam has very amusing exploding seed heads. Which is a pretty cool method for spreading  anything. The seeds taste like young hazel or cob nuts, slightly grainy in texture due to their size but a fun country walk snack. 

I photographed some yesterday for identification. I need to do a little research but, I think they could be ground into a flour once dried. Once the seeds go black they become hard and more than a little unpleasant to chew on.

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This is not a thread to discuss Government actions, WHO statements or the rainbow of scientific’evidence’ associated with COVID. 

This is about my experience of face masks. 

Please powers that be delete if you think this unsuitable. 

OK. 

OH has early onset dementia and serious lung and heart problems. 

Had to walk to the chemist in the next village yesterday as he’s not so good to get the meds his Community Respiratory Nurse said he needed. 
Went into chemist in my hospital quality mask to see a young lady in front waiting to be served. Chemist lady said she should be wearing a mask to which the young lady replied ‘ ill never wear one as it will ruin my makeup’. 

Managed to get a bus home and me and an elderly gent were the only 2 on the bus except for the driver. 

I’m wearing a mask to help protect both myself and OH whilst the driver isn’t and the elderly gent was but it was beneath his nose. 

In shop, PO and garage this morning and the lady that runs it said it was nice to see me wearing my mask properly as a teenager had been in with his attached sideways. 

In my PERSONAL opinion I don’t want anybody to risk either my OH or myself.

I've been musing again.

We all grown so many different types of toms,  for all sorts of different reasons - eating, snacking, salads, sauces, etc.

What's your favourite, for what purpose, and why.  Or put another way, which toms do you grow every year, come what may, and which ones would you never grow ever again.

Two of of my regulars are sungold and sweet aperatif, as I like a sweet tomato to snack on.
Shirley is a salad size I like.  
Black Russian is a beefsteak I seem to grow year on year.
Whilst I grow many other varieties it's probably because I just happen to have the seeds rather than a preference for their taste.
One I won't be growing again is Glacier, I found it tasteless.

I have a few oriental lilies (Beverley Dream, Snow Queen and unamed insipid orange thing!) in pots that probably ought to be repotted - is it best to do it as soon as flowering has finished, wait for dormancy or just when the first shoots appear in the spring?

Thanks as ever

So my parsley this year is terrible, I've had about 5 sprigs from three rows, and it reminded me of the saying Parsley grows where the missus is the master, to put it another way where the missus is the master parsley grows the faster.

There are loads of superstitions around vegetable, herbs and wild bounty and I thought this might be a good spot to collate them. 

So, Parsley is a funny one, as there's another saying that parsley goes to the devil 9 times and very often forgets to come back, meaning that it is a devil to germinate.

Plus you should never give away parsley for fear of bad luck, or transplant it for that mind. (I'm guilty of that one, which is probably why mine isn't growing.!)

I also like the blackberry saying don't pick after all hallows eve as the devil will have infested the berries. Which to be fair is pretty accurate, that late in the season they are normally full of grubs.

What superstitions do you remember, or have been told? I'm sure more will come to my mind shortly.

Had some very nice baby plum toms from the supermarket so decided to save some seed to see what happens.  Too late for this year but will test the germination and try them next season as an experiment.  Anyone heard of Angelle?  I searched on web but not a lot of info, it seems to be a commercial variety.

That's it really☺

Afternoon folks

Without sounding like a broken record another q for next year?

Well, no - think it is an aesculapian snake, squeezed up into the top of the garden/wood shed - the roof and walls are black so get lovely and warm, perfect for reptiles in the morning. 
It got bored of being admired yesterday and uncurled and disappeared behind the wood in the other shed that backs onto this one so we see it was about a metre in length, so a bit of growing to do yet. 
Snakes are always welcome in my garden especially the ones like this who eat voles!!