The Coronavirus Quarantine Picture Show

Yeh right

Not far away, so In my backyard one might say

 

Where’s this Richie?

 

Tricky sods to photograph, crows. They seem to sense your presence, and refuse to offer you a half decent shot...

 

Pigeons are much more amenable...

 

And seagulls are just show offs...

 

There’s a wood, a short walk from where I live in Swindon, lovely on a sunny day.

 

A great uncle of mine made wine from the berries.

 

Best thing is sloe gin.

 

Or with Mrs No7, the not-so-sloe-gin

 

Should be picked after the first frost so I've been told, often in October back in the day. There's parts that haven't had a frost all winter.

 

Something to do with sugars, very low temp causes the sugar percentage in the fruit to rise.
Weirdly, its a similar thing with parsnips, starch to sugar conversion after frost

 

Never tried sloe gin as I dont like gin of any kind in general , so just assumed it would taste roughly the same.

 

It's much sweeter and stickier like a liqueur cos it's basically gin mixed with plum juice and sugar. My wife likes sloe gin, doesn't like normal gin so it definitely changes the taste

 

Really weird, up until about 3 years ago I hated gin. Now I love it. Still can't touch whisky though.

 

I cant say im a fan of plumbs. I'm not a massive spirit drinker in general so never really appealed to me. Though I do like a nice double vodka and orange in the sun.

 

Back in the days of duty free living 600' up in the chilterns and having to travel to the Netherlands often meant plenty of gin so industrial quantities were produced.
I needed an new hobby now to do some online sourcing.

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My wife does a similar thing with vodka. She does a variety made with blackcurrant too, which is great straight out of the freezer.

 

Just finished the last of the mulled berry gin my youngest daughter made last year. Just perfect.

 

He’s back! This time he swooped right down to garden level