Apr 16th, 2020

Author: donich_admin

Strawberries, Raspberries, Melon and some memories

Have been greatly enjoying the first fresh fruit I have had in a long while. I normally eat loads of fruit and I was starting to think I was going to get scurvy!

R ate one single strawberry. I don’t think this will do much for him but he is taking a vitamin tablet every day. R has the strangest ideas on what constitutes part of his five a day. I heard him claim on more than one occasion that the raisins in “Raisin Wheats” were valid – I am not sure about that.

I am going to go out today and clear out the old fire pit in the woods. We have never tried it but I think it would make a good location for a barbecue – I was not able to get charcoal for love nor money (what on earth are people stockpiling that for – do they think the zombie apocalypse is coming?) so I am going to try a wood fire. I haven’t done this since I was a kid and we rather unsuccessfully cooked potatoes on the embers of our bonfire on 5th November.

Those were definitely happier days. We lived in an ordinary suburban house but there was no problem then in having a bonfire in the back garden. My birthday is 4th November so we would normally combine my party with Guy Fawkes and fireworks. The garage would be cleared out for the occasion and we would have baked potatoes, sausages and toffee apples. My Mum will not be happy to hear this, but I never thought she had the technique for them quite right, because they set like rocks. The only way to eat them was to slowly suck them until the outer layer dissolved away.

Then we would have the fireworks. Again in those days there was no problem in getting them. I remember when I was a runner with the Border Harriers at the age of about twelve – I was getting changed in the “Ladies” at Bitts park. All of a sudden the door burst open and a boy threw a jumping jack into the room. My father was not much more safety conscious either – he believed in getting his money’s worth out of the fireworks and would scare my Mum shitless by going back to them if they didn’t light up the first time.