Third and probably lastberries

I picked blackberries for the third and probably last time this season this afternoon, a little later in the year than usual, about a month later if reference 2 is anything to go by.

Started off on the edge of the Common, at the junction of Christchurch Road and Hook Lane, where I have had good pickings in the past. This year I think the council flail had been round late spring and took down a lot of the growth which would have by now been bearing fruit. There were also a lot of nettles pushing up through. So a bit slow, but I did fill about half my tub.

Pushed on down Horton Lane, starting with the hedge bordering the new allotments. Much the same story, but here we had a fair bit of convolvulus as well.

But for the third and last push, I pushed onto the roundabout and did the turning into Noble Park. Here things got much better, with there being a lot more ripe berries on this north facing hedge. Soon filled the reservoir tub (left) and the picking tub (right). Must have been several pounds.

On the way to the roundabout a passing lorry, the sort of small, open lorry favoured by travellers and rubbish disposal contractors, thought it would be fun to give me a good honk as they passed. Sport of a sort to watch me jump, but not too clever. I might jump into them, with unpleasant results for me and tedious results for them.

And then while I was there, a deluxe horse box passed. Five axles, about the length of the lorries used by the big supermarkets, but rather higher. Double doors for the horses in the side, rather than at the back. And windows running along the top - the idea being, I suppose, to let the light in but not all the sights and sounds of the road. It certainly looked very smart. Perhaps the sort of thing used by the better class of racing stable. While Bing seemed to be confused about the difference between the sort of deluxe caravans favoured by successful fairground operators and the sort of deluxe horse boxes that I wanted, and didn't turn up the horse box in question - but it did turn up reference 3, where they look even more deluxe. Or perhaps thinking about it, flashy rather than deluxe.

Over to BH for tray freeze etc. And what with the damsons which have been falling off our northern neighbour's tree into our garden, we can probably call a halt. Damsons slightly different in that they are cooked before freezing. One damson crumble so far, very good it was too.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/08/hookberries.html. The last pick.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/08/fifth-and-last-blackberries.html. The last pick, last year.

Reference 3: https://www.sovereignhorseboxes.com/.