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Amongst the manic last few weeks before the festival I am having to fit in all sorts of other things that just won't wait 'til after it. Picking blackcurrants for one thing, how time-consuming is that? Fiddly little critters. You crouch down in weird positions and get all the arthriticy bits into contortionist shapes and then can't move.

Plus when you think that you have picked them all, you look again and they've gone and multiplied, how could all those have been missed? But although I have emptied the bushes of every last berry (Mmm?),now they have to be gone through to remove all the little leaves and twiggy bits, and stalks, and random creepy-crawley examples of livestock. That done, they'll find themselves frozen until I can think straight enough, post-fest, to jam them.

Then there's the garlic, OK there's hardly acres of it but even 80 garlics take up space. And the space they are taking up is the kitchen table. They have had one and a half days outside on the wall enjoying the lack of rain and beginning to dry out when the monsoons returned. Lets hope for sunshine tomorrow. They couldn't go in the old larder because that was full of salmon sides being cured and then, frankly I couldn't be bothered to move them!

The salmon has spent today up our huge chimney being smoked. I have a long ladder which I put up inside the chimney and then I carry a few sides at a time up it and hang them on a bar high up inside. I wear a bath hat and swimming goggles so that my eyes don't smart and can see what I'm doing even if I can't breath. The house stinks of smoke and BH isn't happy about it but he will forgive me when he eats the salmon...it always works! I remain fairly kippered for a few days, it just seems to stick to me. I have tried smoking some garlic too so that'll be interesting (or maybe not).

I'll be having the same sort of day tomorrow!!

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