Potato Pebble

At the allotment this evening.

Last night my neighbour called round with the gift of a huge yellow courgette. They have the allotment opposite ours. I offered her some red currants in exchange.  So this evening  I picked a big punnet for her  - glad to pass them on - and a punnet of black currants for us - much nicer.

I bent the tines of the garden fork trying to dig up the potatoes  - the ground like rock. I always remember digging potatoes with my father in The Small Garden near Pangbourne  - him with his foot  planted on the fork, pushing it into the black soil, turning it over, exposing the tubers and me bending down, picking them out of the crumbly earth like clean smooth pebbles.

All day our gardener was pruning and strimming and clearing the wild honeysuckle and wisteria and rampant ivy on the long neglected trellises at the back. The ivy has taken hold with a great grip,  outgrown the fences and pushed over several fence posts and panels. So now we have to replace them. The garden feels lighter, less enclosed which is better for the plants, but I'm missing my high green curtain of foliage....feel  a bit exposed -like a newly dug potato pebble ......think the neighbours at the back can see into the kitchen while we sit at the table eating our supper. Just being hyper sensitive - no-one looking. 

Even if they are I'm getting better at being seen these days.

  Later I cooked some of the black currants with sugar and swirled them into a whisked up tin of coconut milk - the dense white solid part - sweetened with honey and vanilla essence - and made a deep ruby red dairy free ice-cream. Which reminds me that I didn't check if it froze. I'll go and do that now. May need to taste a spoonful as well.