I cleaned out our old Guinea Pig tonight; new hay and sawdust are great summery smells. The children were quizzing me today on the pets I had had when I was a child. Judging by the numbers and range that we had; I think my dad was trying to live the "Good Life" Suburban Dream. We had ducks; chickens; rabbits; guinea pigs (Lots of litters - that was what the girls were most interested in) hamsters; fish; gerbils and cats and a dog. We were fortunate to have an enormous garden; which meant sharing the garden with all these creatures was no hardship. I was particularly fond of the ducks; who had great personalities. Francis (who was of course a drake!) would chase you down the garden with his head down; but as soon as you looked round at him; he would pretend he was looking for worms in the soil.
My dad was (and is) an amazing gardener; we always had a garden full of raspberries; plums; and lots of vegetables. He grew amazing tomatoes in his green house; most of which he ate himself or turned into pickle! I wish I had developed my taste for freshly grown tomatoes much younger; I've only really been eating them for about 10 or 15 years.
I do not appear to have inherited my Dad's ability to grow - I love being in the garden; but I am not naturally green fingered. I don't think the Manchester Weather helps either - rain and slugs are great destroyers of produce. Having said that; soft fruits grow like mad in our garden; we have a raspberry forest; which has crept from one raised bed into all four of the beds we lovingly put in 12 years ago. (The original plant came from my Dad - so I think that is why it is so fecund) We also have a couple of 3 year old blackcurrants and redcurrants. They gave us a few pots of jam last year and some delicious cordial. I am picking as they ripen and putting them in the freezer until I have enough for a pot of jam.
We also had a very unexpected present from my lovely friend who stayed with us last week. I'm looking forward to drinking that!
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