Feeling jolly over our jelly

The red and yellow wild raspberries I picked earlier in the month produced eight jars of jelly. Not a lot, but I’m bound to tell you – and not just out of loyalty to the Doyenne – it is absolutely ambrosial. Delicious on my breakfast toast but even more scrumptious as a topping on ice cream. All the scratches and stinging nettles encountered picking them are forgotten.

The rowan and apple jelly is made too, and has set nicely. I look forward to several slices of leg of lamb, cooked to the Doyenne’s irreproachable perfection, with a generous spoonful of jelly gracing the side of the plate.

And it’s chanterelle mushroom time. It’s a short season and I’ve been out picking them to have with bacon for breakfast. My father’s idea of a princely meal was chanterelles with deer liver – he was never one to think about food in half measures.

The homemade elderflower cordial is finished now. It is such a lifesaver, with plenty of ice and crushed spearmint leaves for added zing, when I come in hot and bothered from cutting the grass.

The Doyenne is determined I should lose weight but, with so many temptations put in front of me, I ask what chance my generous shadow has of diminishing? Help may be at hand however – the Doyenne’s latest escapade is making sourdough bread.

Sourdough is a rustic sort of a bread which is heavy in texture but delicious. The Doyenne makes it with brown flour giving it a nutty taste which we both enjoy. I found a quote from Dr David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Centre at Yale University School of Medicine, saying that sourdough is “the best bread for your weight loss program…”

There’s no word about how thick you can spread the butter or how many spoons of raspberry jam are permitted, but I’ll work those out for myself.

Hide ‘n’ seek songbirds

Readers may be noticing an apparent drop in the numbers of birds visiting their gardens at this time and wonder why. Songbirds are still coming to our gardens but they are behaving differently, temporarily.

For most species the breeding season is over now and they no longer need to plunder our lawns hunting for worms to feed their chicks, which is when we see so many blackbirds, thrushes, starlings and other small birds.

There is an abundance of insect food, and seeds and berries too, making them less dependent on bird feeders.

The main explanation is that many species are moulting. When birds lose their feathers and new feathers are growing they are less mobile and slower and vulnerable to predators. They need extra energy to replace heat which is lost more rapidly while moulting, and extra protein for feather growth. They stay in close cover for safety, wary of spending time in the open. Gardens with plenty of dense vegetation, offering greatest safety, will attract most birds during this summer lull – you just need to look for them.

Early arrivals

I heard a report at the beginning of the week of a skein of geese seen flying over a house near Alyth. The late Peter Gladstone of Fasque, who was a noted ornithologist, used to say he expected the first geese to arrive between the 17th and 19th of September.

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My father’s idea of a princely meal was chanterelles with deer liver – he was never one to think about food in half measures

The grey geese make their autumn migration here from Iceland and Greenland where they have been nesting over the summer months. As winter takes a grip up there, they must fly south to our more temperate conditions to overwinter.

So these were fully a month early and you might wonder if it is another example of climate change – or might it be climate confusion?

Do they instinctively know something about an early winter which we humans, with all our technology and forecasting, don’t know? It’s incredible really

– far beyond the Arctic Circle, a thousand miles away, instinct tells the birds when it’s time to leave for Montrose Basin, the Solway Firth or wherever and instinct guides them here. We humans would need a calendar, an alarm clock and satnav – and we’d think ourselves pretty clever.

Picture: Angus Whitson.