HARVEST

I think that I may have mentioned before about my lack of skill or desire for committed gardening. In fact, for various reasons, despite being a tiny smudge of nothingness in the great scheme of things in which you could barely swing the proverbial cat (although I've never tried, sometimes it is rather tempting...) our garden has been rather neglected over the past few summers after having put in some considerable efforts for a couple of long forgotten seasons.

I could blame it on the fact that, for the past three years, whenever I've planned to spend a weekend in the garden, it's absolutely hammered it down with rain.

Perhaps I could blame the seasonal workloads which come with our jobs which have meant that sowing time has already long gone before we get ourselves organised enough to plant anything.

This year I could blame the endless trips to the hospital eating up the more glorious evenings and weekends, or the minor ailments we seem to have accumulated between us, which have prevented much in the way of manual activity for more months than I care to remember...

But, I suspect that we've just got a little lazy.

It was heartening, therefore, to find, when I sat outside the other morning with a cup of coffee in my hand and the test match on my steam-powered analogue radio, that a long-forgotten blackcurrant bush, sitting alone and neglected in an overgrown corner of the garden, had borne an almost astonishing quantity of fruit after having had no input in terms of tending to it from me whatsoever.

Very quickly, this spurred me into action, or whatever passes for it nowadays, and I dashed indoors to get a colander and swiftly began to harvest the berries before the birds and the slugs had a chance to grab the lot, and now they lurk , deep frozen in our freezer, and I'm anticipating a rather fine blackcurrant pie at some point in my very near future.

Huzzah for easy gardening and something for (very nearly) nothing...!