I’ve not posted for a while. You probably didn't notice. But Juliet did. My former neighbour from years back, in touch about a different subject, casually asked “why did you stop blogging about the vineyard? I found it quite interesting”. I haven’t stopped. It’s just that there’s not much to write about during the dormant season. In fact one of my previous dormant season posts (The waiting season) was about the fact there’s not much to do or write about in the dormant season. Things are...

I left you two months ago facing a sort of avian apocalypse, as day-by-day a…what? A covey of pheasants? A bouquet? That’s what Google tells me is the most common term. A bouquet of pheasants, and it’s also pleasingly vinous in flavour. As day by day a bouquet of pheasants. No, bouquet doesn’t convey the sheer military shock and awe of the thing. A Blitzkrieg of pheasants laid progressive waste to row upon row of ripening bunches. What happened next? More bird carnage, an experiment with a...

Lynsore Bottom. Michaelmas term lately begun, and several thousand bunches of grapes ripening in a Kentish field. Settled, calm but...