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First ripe outdoor tomatoes. They taste wonderful.



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that's how at least part of the garden should be utilized


Richard,

They certainly look wonderful, too. Must be satisfying to produce, grow, such quality. I've already expressed about Italy this morning (Mike Beard's blog post), but those look as good as Italian! 😎 Well done.

Our garden is quite small, but one small section of it has produced excellent blackberries (gorgeous with porridge), every year, since about 2013. I have to keep it stripped back to a certain volume (as a weed it proliferates in no time in the summer if left) but the bees love it (May/June) and I am fascinated by the way the fruit matures at all different times, for about two months (it seems to me, anyway). It has another benefit for our sparrows. Some of the leaves keep intact, well into December and sometimes beyond.

All the best,

Jeremy

Richard Walker

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I salute you as a fellow gardener and for your wonderful insight!

Richard Walker

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That reminds me.In the garden of the house where I grew up we had a bank of Himalayan blackberries. Great flavour but very aggressive.

The Land of the Tiger


Hi again Richard,

Thanks for the salute 😎

Were those Himalayan blackberries growing within a country adjacent to or within the Himalayas - or somewhere in Europe? Your point has made me wonder whether blackberries are only indigenous to the northern hemisphere or are they worldwide (I haven't Googled, yet)?

Your reference to the Himalayas has set me off on another direction of thought. Around the end of the 90's, the BBC were producing some wonderful factual series. One of these was Valmik Thapar's (narrator, author, conservationist, naturalist), Land of the Tiger (also BBC books, 1997). I have the book.

Within it, there are some wonderful photographs of the landscape, tigers and its people.

Thank you for reminding me that I have it, and I'm looking at it again now. It's a great read. I respect Thapar and his work. Speaking of work, I am looking forward to 7 September, when I'll have access to my next module! 😄

All the best to you,

Jeremy

Richard Walker

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The blackberries were growing in North Hertfordshire, don’t really know how they came there. What module are you starting?

thanks for the response to the response


Oh, North Hertfordshire, Richard, that's interesting. I haven't seen her for a while, but I have an old aunt, in Welwyn (the smaller) and way back in 1979, I was based for three months on the Herts/Middlesex border (in a 1950's caravan, in which the water froze many mornings! I was there Sept or Oct to December, but couldn't manage on the pay and so I returned to the north of England for another five years). That aunt may be living with my cousin now - another aunt, also pretty old, mentioned to me, recently.

My next module (Year 4 of 6, part-time, of the degree in Health Sciences) is S290, Investigating Human Health and Disease. Thanks for asking. 😄 What are you studying?

Best wishes,

Jeremy