Awake early, I was at the huerto by 6am and breakfasted on my first cucumber and precious three hanging basket strawberries (Temptation, you manifest in my neighbour’s big juicy strawberry bed!). Delicious, but  hardly sustaining.

The task du jour was twofold: to trim the overgrown box hedging and to harvest the prematurely felled gooseberries. Both jobs physically demanding (three sided stooping with shears on the one hand and tedious prickly disembarrassing of heavily laden branches on the other – result, 7 kilos!). So the process was slow and alternating, and in between that  I found diversion in the happy realisation that, despite apparent concerns to the contrary, the black fly infested broad bean shoots did not need to be pinched out – the ladybirds were in energetic action! PS I’ve made 12 jars of jam; only 4 kilos to go….