After a full moon last night, the morning is beautiful.

As I write this the sun has illuminated the interior of the cottage and blue skies are making themselves known.

I’ve just snapped this pic…it’s the view from my desk, so you can see for yourself!

It’s been busy here over recent days as I attempt to bring some of the enormous harvest home.

It helps to have a veranda to sit where I can prepare the blackcurrants for the freezer.

This is a home-made drying rack for the fruit, after it’s been washed in the rainwater barrel.

I have lined it with a piece of bridal veil, sourced from an old dressing up box .

As the weather has turned out so fine, I am making the most of the day by mowing and harvesting some of the grass on the many paths here at Bealtaine Cottage.

This path to the tunnel and compost area is well worn as you can imagine, so I’ve laid a little leftover gravel onto the bare areas.

It stops me from slipping, as I make a dash to the compost with the bucket of waste!

Talking of compost, this was the beautiful sight that greeted me today…Poppies in the compost heap and lots of growth on the potatoes!

This is just the beginning of the harvest.

It will continue for several months and is a very busy time…in fact there are days when the stillness of midwinter seems awfully appealing!

But even as the harvest is brought home, sowing and planting continues as the most of the long days are appreciated.

I have recently sown these, swedes and beetroot…they can be planted outdoors or in the tunnel and make tasty additions to meals later on.

Lastly, a pic of a rather successful and very easy way to get perfect strawberries…I planted these in the hanging pot about two years ago and have had good crops of strawberries with no input what so ever, other than a feed in late spring! I will be planting and hanging lots more here on these Blackthorn tress…a good way of using the vertical garden approach!