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Greetings!

'A gaping silken dragon,/Puffed by the wind, suffices us for God./We, not the City, are the Empire's soul:/A rotten tree lives only in its rind.'

Tuesday 30 July 2013

Steam...

... and soft fruit.

Well, I couldn't resist it. After much consideration, I decided that the new Imagi-war, 42mm project steam lorries were just too garish for the show. So I've given one of them the treatment, and now it looks much more utilitarian (than a brewery dray?), and more active service:


Actually, I think it looks rather noble - a bit like those London buses that saw their way to the Western Front in 1914/15. 


Not quite finished, as the barrels need a bit of matt varnish, and the lorry could do with a number, perhaps with a Cyrillic air.


Meanwhile, the allotment plot continues to produce, with soft fruit flowing into our tiny galley kitchen,


where it is turned into jam (more than enough for a year's supply) by my Western Isles' wife, who knows a thing or two about good jam.




Or, as our grandson said, admiringly, last year, 'Granny takes little things and turns them into jam'.


I might add that the soft fruit produces fine crops despite being somewhat neglected by me - amazingly forgiving. My soil time is more focused on the broad bean/dwarf French bean/cabbage/swedes/runner beans/potatoes/green leaves front. And all for a few pounds sterling a year.

10 comments:

  1. Ah terrific! Nice and war weary...

    The jam looks cool too! ;)

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    1. Thanks, Stephen. It actually turned out quite well, but I intend to add a great plume of black smoke - I went to a steam lorry rally last year and was amazed at the amount of blackness one of these things could throw out.

      The jam turned out better - so far it is gooseberry (good for breakfast), raspberry, and blackcurrant. Later it will be my fave - blackberry (or as my Scots wife says, 'bramble').

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  2. The truck could double up as a jam delivery service. Already got the barrels!

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    1. Indeed - and if First War memoirs are anything to go by, it was won on bully beef and tinned jam.

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  3. But the brass! The nice shiny brass! Oh what a terrible thing is war!

    Very nice looking berries! I was picking raspberries myself today, after fighting my way through some form of weed that grows waist high in a week, and thinking that it was just as well I don't make jam as there wouldn't be quite enough. Luckily I like'em raw too. I should wade over and check the currents and gooseberries tomorrow.

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    1. Yes, the brass business bothers me - ever since Dancing Cake Tin made his staybrite comment... oh, as you say 'a terrible thing'.

      What is it with weeds and grass ? Any why can't we eat either? It would be much easier.

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  4. A great effort with the lorry,can you tell us a little of the process?
    Fantastic produce from the allotment with the joy of jam to come.

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    1. The process ? Ah, well, it was, it goes without saying, highly scientific... A blast or two from the black rattle can, followed by a blast or two from the grey primer can, which, fortuitously, was almost empty - that gave a rather effective finish, with the black showing through and looking like wear and tear and coal and soot.

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  5. Replies
    1. You said it .... mmmmmm indeed. Out tiny outhouse (ex s**t house) will be full by the end of autumn.
      Yours, a homemade jam junky.

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