August Bank Holiday looms large

As the August Bank Holiday looms large we are busy making chutney and jam for Christmas, I know but it is the way of the world that we like many other industries have to be ahead of the rest of the "normal" world.

So like fashion designers working on the next season and already now we are thinking about the new year and what tastes and delights will be in food fashion next year.

Another thought that came home to me this week, with the tip of Hurricance Billy currently filling the garden with rainwater was that already the swallows are lining up in readiness to head south. I love the English seasons, the fact that the nights draw in as Autumn approaches, from the long sultry days of June when the sun set after 10pm across the hills of the Lake District to now the almost complete blackness of the sky at 9pm. It makes for putting the chicken and ducks to bed easier as they head on in around 8pm. I seem to remember long hot lazy August days of my youth, but maybe not, as the nights draw in and certainly the weather this year in August has been far from long and hot. My mother in law stayed with us last week and just once we were able to venture outdoors for a meal, but only with blankets, the fire and a few glasses for medicinal purposes to keep us warm. Since she went we have eaten outside each night....but that may not last looking at the skies of today.

On the school run again from next week, and on Saturday we head south with the swallows, but only as far as London as we attend the Speciality Fine Food Fair a trade fair for our wholesale customers which is hard work but fun.