>>>>Too true. Especially when I switch on my Vodafone and the message "How are you?" appears. It's not in the least interested in how I slipped on the hill, on wet chalk, and, being surrounded by nettles, blackberry bushes
>>>
>>>Ahh... your bushes give blackberries... people are spending huge sums of money on both here, and get just this addiction, no joy.
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>>They're everywhere. Every trip up the hill takes twice as long with my daughter as we feast on them. Big and ripe and sweet now. Just had a week's camping in The New Forest (loose ponies and cattle everywhere, in a mixture of moorland and woodland, planted by William the Conqueror, for his private hunting). The blackberries there were much less advanced than here.
>
>Interesting about the blackberries. Here we normally wouldn't expect anything worth picking until the end of this month (except me - I love them when they are still red and extra tart).

Seems the same where we were.

>What we *are* getting now in whinberries (for the U.S. audience a bit like miniature blueberries) - high on the hills,labor intensive but delicious!
>
>P.S. Good luck with the job application!

Thanks

I'd like to try and grow blueberries (my fave fruit) but we have chalky soil and hard water here. Would cost too much to make beds of erecacious (spelling ???) and I wouldn't be able to use tap water - only collected rain.

BTW, I've never heard of whinberries.