July is a weird time here, a time of "almost" --we are "almost" on the verge of every bit of summer fruit coming ripe at the same time - cherries, black currants, raspberries and plums are days away from flooding my counters awaiting their rightful place in pies, jams and my freezer. There are almost cucumbers ready for pickles and gin. The peas are almost finished and I am not sure what will take their place in the polytunnel. The courgettes are almost flowering. The baby goats are almost weaned and we almost have an amazing raw feta recipe ready for publishing.
I would also say that we have almost found our new normal, here amongst the new world of coronavirus. Orders are much more manageable and we've been able to take time off, see friends now we are allowed and being to get an idea of what our lives and business could look like AF (After the Flour-pocolypse) - but its tentative though- more ideas than reality...another almost, but not quite.
If I am honest, I quite like this being on the cusp - it is the exciting, dreamy phase of summer. I can picture the jewel coloured jars that are going to line my shelves, the baskets of cucumbers I am going haul out of the garden, the punnets of frozen fruit that is going to line my freezer. None of the bad stuff features yet - the sore back from standing at the counter, the running out jars in the middle of the night as I try to put up just one more batch of jam, the inevitable mouldy produce that I just couldn't get to, the goats breaking in to eat all of my dahlias...all out of mind for now.
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