It's foraging season

 This morning, my friend and I drove over to Hemlington Lake for our early walk and noticed that the little 'gage' type plums are on the point of ripening. The trees are absolutely  dripping with them so on Saturday if the weather is ok I'll get Tony to take me over and we can pick some.  I intend to freeze some and dry some for snacking as we still have loads of jam from last year. Some will go into making a kind of plum brandy for Christmas and some we will eat fresh.  Now that we are both low carb we haven't been buying bread so jam on toast/scones is on the whole a thing of the past. I might stew some with a bit of honey and freeze it in the ice cube trays.  One cube will be lovely if I defrost it and stir it into some yoghurt and is hardly going to pile on the pounds. The brambles (blackberries) are also starting to swell now and there's loads all around my neighbourhood. I intend to pick some of the biggest sweetest ones and freeze them on open trays. Then they can go into plastic boxes and will be lovely in the winter months. Greengages are ripening just around the corner and they too will be getting picked very soon. I love this time of year when nature's free  abundance is everywhere if you take the time to look. It won't be long before the apples are starting to ripen and I'll be stewing some down for winter use. Our apples don't ripen until late September but the ones hanging over my garden from the neighbours tree ripen a bit earlier.  It's a crying shame to see them shovel up tens of kilo's of apples and bin them. We make the most of the free ones dropping onto the pergola roof.

Free bounty from my neighbours tree

I'm making the most of every spare pot and tub just now and only wish the garden had another twenty feet.  I think the pond is definitely going to be the journey as it takes up a fair bit of space

The little golden hedge is really coming along nicely