They're here!

The last week of fine warm weather has brought the late summer raspberries to ripeness at last. Sweet, fragrant and gorgeous - difficult not to eat them all as I pick them...

I've spent the week decorating the new shop, with some beautiful wall paper and a great old dresser to put the bottles on. The tiny gin palace is coming together and is now under the watchful eye of a fine feathered pheasant.
All being well I should be open in time for the the E17 Art Trail 1-16th Sept, where I will be opening with a show called Cock o' the North. The show features paintings of handsome roosters, and black and white photography of bold Cumbrian Wrestlers in the ring. It's all about male plumage, strut and swagger!
Check out the E17 Art Trail website at www.e17arttrail.co.uk for details of all the exhibitions in this year's trail.

Using every lamp in the house I've cobbled together a photo studio in my kitchen! Amazingly you can get pretty decent results with a phone camera and an anglepoise...

I've been drawing pictures for the new labels and sent them off to the printers this week. I picked them up this morning and here they are! They look proper lovely, thank you so much to Sema printing, - a Walthamstow institution - , and good luck in your move to Chingford.

Dark and delicious

In between rain showers I gathered in half of this year's blackcurant crop. The netting I put up has kept out the pesky blackbirds and as a result the bushes are covered with strings of shining black jewels. All bagged up and in the freezer now, and awaiting the addition of some vanilla pods and a litre or two of vodka. Rib*na it ain't - but I'm almost certain it's good for you!

Raspberry delight...

With the rain pouring down and the men's finals at Wimbledon, it's a day for for staying indoors and straining last year's raspberry vodka through muslin. I'm left with a delicious heap of drunken raspberries. May try a magnificent and possibly very sticky experiment with melted chocolate as a product development idea...

The last of the early summer rhubarb has been harvested and is steeped in vodka and fresh ginger quietly turning it a delicate rosé colour. I am now jealously guarding the black currant crop from greedy blackbirds who scold me whenever I turn up at the allotment to water. If the sun would just come out for a day or so they'll be ready for picking.
Mother's Ruin took a day off from the whirl of gin production to go Morris dancing with her mates Sharp Morris in Stratford upon Avon