Jam

Do you know the brilliant picture book of this name by Margaret Mahy? A family have a plum tree overlooking their house which produces such abundant fruit that they have to make vast quantities of jam which they end up using for jobs like re-sticking bathroom tiles etc. They all get very fat eating the jam too. At last they finish the last jar when, plop .. the first of the following year's plums falls on their roof ...

I said it was autumn, didn't I? The plums and apples are all dropping in our little orchard. So we picked as many plums from the tree as we could reach and must now make us much jam as the family in the story. And our little damson tree, given to me as a birthday present four or five years ago, produced 50 fruits! Enough for a couple of jars I should think. But I had rashly bought over a kilo of apricaots last week so have been turning those into jam first. It's going to be hot and busy in our kitchen for the foreseeable future.

Even hotter for Jess who managed to get off to India yesterday, on the day five months from when she fell ill with CFS. I hope she'll be OK. Actually, she is in Nepal first for a few days but the main three week trip is in India. As when I went away for a month, the hardest bit was getting to the airport.

Only four chapters to go! But I'll have to stop to work on final sub-editying points on the Falconer's Knot next week.

I've jsut had a fanmail saying I am the best writer since Edgar Allan Poe. A compliment I think, if unexpected!