Strawberry clear up, sloes and death

Okay, it's late on Thursday night and I am yet again sedated for the 4th time today. Knowing that the day is almost over calms me and for a moment of two I have been quite clear in my mind. I thought it would be nice to write a blog - it's so much a part of the real me.

So, I really hope you have your strawberry beds all sorted out for the winter! Of course I would have written about this 2 weeks ago when I did mine but better late than ever. Now my plants were brand new this summer so I hadn't much to do, just cut off all the runners (goodness there were about 8-10 radiating from each plant with plenty of babies on each) and chop the top leaves off. Then I gathered up all that lovely straw (perfect for the compost bins) and weeded = happy days.

Before ~

After~

Strawberries can be left in the same place - yay for no worries about crop rotation! If yours are 3-4 yrs old, runners are you ticket to new, tasty, hardy, FREE plants for you and all your friends. They very conveniently have little roots and are so ready to get going that you can simply let them plant themselves :) but you know, put them where you want them!! Alternately pot them up :)

Andrew also found a darn good sloe tree within Maggie walking distance and so the inevitable happened - we have started on the 2012 vintage Sloe Gin. I am quite sure that there are other things you could do with sloes but I am happy to make a tasty beverage.

And lastly for now, I must share the sad news that we have had to say farewell to another of our fancy goldfish. Awesome Fred was, just that, Awesome, hence the name but we had been very ill for months and despite all we could try for him, he was just getting worse; living upside down and recently not able to right himself or eat :( Poor guy, he has been buried with love.