Nature's bounty.

Wild fruits are especially rich this year. Rowans, blaeberries, wild strawberries, cloudberries (known as 'evrons' in this part of the country) on the higher ground, are all in abundance. Was it the weather in the spring? Did the bees have good weather at pollination time? Is it a sign of a hard winter to come (I hope not!). Whatever the reason, there's no excuse for missing out on rowan jelly with your lamb or venison in the months to come!

Rowan berries (Mountain Ash, Sorbus acuparia)

Recipe for rowan jelly

900g (2lb) Rowan Berries
900g (2lb) Crab Apples
1.8lt (3 pints) Water
Sugar

Pick over the rowan berries, removing any stalks, wash if necessary, drying well.
Wash the whole crab apples, removing any bruised parts.
Place the fruit and just enough water to cover into a heavy bottomed saucepan.
Bring to the boil and simmer, covered for 20 - 25 minutes, until tender.
Strain through a jelly bag or muslin cloth, allow about 4 hours for this, do not squeeze as this will cause the jelly to become cloudy.
Measure the volume of the liquid, add 450g (1lb) of sugar for each pint (600ml) of liquid.
Place the sugar in an ovenproof bowl and put it in the centre of a pre-heated oven for 10 - 15 minutes.
Place the juice back into a heavy bottomed saucepan, add the sugar, stirring until fully dissolved.
Bring to the boil and cook rapidly for 10 - 15 minutes until the setting point is reached.
Skim the surface if necessary, allow to cool slightly then pot.

What not to do on a friday afternoon.....

So its friday lunchtime and your thoughts are turning to what you've got planned for the weekend ahead, visit family, do that annoying DIY job you've been putting off, sleep for two days.....So you busy yourself finishing up all those little jobs at work, empty your in tray so you can finish with a clear mind.

Thats not what i do....no no no no, i go out onto a deserted moorland and drive into a hole! Yay!

Ta-da!

So now what do i do? Cry, run around screaming, have a good talk to myself about the idea of camping out for the weekend. Well i looks like i'm gonna have to dig. 3 hours later....i sit back and have a virtual hamlet moment.

So i leave it for the weekend and get a lift home with chris. Stressing over the weekend that a pack of teenage grouse are going to find it and i roll up monday morning with it jacked up on bricks etc. But no, its still there and still stuck! Cue another 5 hours of huffing and puffing with chris to dig it out. Having exhausted our list of de-bogging tricks (we were just digging it deeper) we call on ged to come to our rescue. One phone call later here he comes with a tractor from alocal farm. Piff paff poof and i'm out.

The day was not all lost though, it was sunny, we had beautiful views of the cairngorms and ladder hills and we found this little blighter:

An Emperor mouth caterpillar. This will spend its time on the moorland eating heather and eventually turn into this:

Alls well that ends well. Thanks to everyone that saved me and my toyota, thanks paddy for the company (he ran around alot) and Jim.....can we get a four wheel drive tractor next financial year please?