My little currant bushes have produced!

Result. It was mostly blackcurrants this year, but as you can see there were a few white currants in for good measure. The redcurrant seems to have been struggling, but it does have leaves and has grown, so I'll try and feed it lots and give it a bit of soil improvement and hope for better things next year.

This morning I took Nigel Slater's advice and boiled them up with a desert spoon of sugar, a desert spoon of water and a handful of my alpine strawberries too. Then I put a generous spoonful of the mixture over my breakfast toast, along with a splurge of honey and a banana.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking as soon as I try and eat that it'll all fall off. That is why the Earl of Sandwich put the top slice on the sandwich and I followed suit. But it wouldn't have made as pretty a picture.

That is a breakfast. Oh yes. But I think what's left of that purple sauce would be even better with a generous scoop of vanilla icecream. I may even have to buy some on my way home tomorrow.

For our third and final wedding of the year we headed up to Whitstable on Saturday morning. The weather last week had been pretty atrocious, and it wasn't exactly looking great in Brighton when we left, but we had our fingers crossed.

What is it with weddings and cool cars? The bridesmaids got there not too long after we did, in this beauty:

Click to read more ...

Not all taken recently, but all taken with my phone.

We have Brighton Pier.

I go past that bit every working day. In the morning it's lovely, in the evening a bit crowded around there.

The one that's still standing, as opposed to the West Pier.

And this is just at the back of the marina. All of these boats are well out of the water and waiting to be cleaned or mended or something. I might try and get a better shot with my camera rather than my phone... Or it's nearly time to get a new phone, so maybe I'll get one with a better camera!

And this morning we had our first daylily or hemerocallis flowering! Woohoo! But I still haven't charged my camera batteries, so it's a really rubbish photo that focussed on the leaves rather than the flower. I wanted to make a note of it though...

That was a pretty tiring weekend. Yup.

Saturday we got up fairly early (and for some reason I was pretty difficult to wake up) and headed up to Londres to help my brother with his new house. In true London style, to be able to afford one he's had to take on a pretty serious renovation job. It's structurally sound, but everything else needs doing pretty much! So we gutted his kitchen and painted his living room and bedroom. Poor GG tried to do things that most people would not have attempted, and had a small mishap that needed a plumber to fix, but he needed to find a plumber anyway so that wasn't too bad. I know she's feeling pretty bad about it still though, but really, it was just a small accident.

Anyway, we stayed there from about 11 am to 10 pm. That's a lot of painting and kitchen massacring. It'll take a few more days like that to get it inhabitable too. Oh, and a new bathroom. And kitchen.

Sunday we had a cricket match up in Cambridge, so we went back up with my parents on Saturday night to cut the journey. Which was definitely a good plan. Oddly I ached a bit next day, and was even harder to wake up! It was a seriously windy day, but sunny, so we did manage to play. I was umpiring. Our team barely showed up. Don't know what was up with them all. They are normally a pretty good side, but they totally collapsed in a small heap to all out for 39 runs. It didn't take the opponants long to win, but they did lose a few wickets in the chase. And i got a sunburnt face, because it was so windy I didn't notice. It was windy enough that it was hard work standing still. I was very glad not to be actually playing.

Also, having spent the last two weekends umpiring, I would like to apologise to all of those umpires who's decisions I have doubted. You were doing your best. And to the people who say "it was too high!" or "I hit it!" or "I didn't hit it!" fine. You try standing behind those stumps.  

I've been struck by the way that blogging creates connections. Reading other people's blogs and having others read mine allows such an insight.

It's shrunk the world for me. When the bridge in Minneapolis collapsed it was reported on the radio news when I was listening in bed next morning. My first thought was about a blogger I'd been reading (who has since stopped blogging, unfortunately), and I headed off to check on her. It made it personal. Otherwise I'd just have ignored the news item, most likely.

Or I've knitted hats for Canadian homeless people. I'd never have done that if not for the way the ever-charming Rabbitch writes. Again, it made something that seemed far away personal.

When people I have never met but have read for ages are going through tough times I want to help. They feel like friends, even though there's a good chance that they have no idea who I am (I lurk a lot!). This morning I read a totally heart-wrenching blog post (which I won't link to) from someone one the West coast of the States, and it really brought home how powerful a few words can be.

I am fascinated by what makes me read certain blogs. It seems to be something to do with tone. But I can't say exactly what that is. And there definitely seems to be an optimum number. I may do some more thinking about this...