Decanted

Following my posts of 27th of both January and February, I can now report that decanter games have been terminated.

Whereas:

making jam will increase sugar consumption, which at our age is not very clever from a diabetic point of view,

making concoctions with hedgerow fruit - mainly blackberries and sloes - with gin and whisky is not terribly successful in that one would probably get more pleasure from drinking the gin and whisky without messing about with hedgerow fruit,

we are in the middle of a drive to reduce the volume of bric-a-brac in the house,

it has been determined that we stop making both jam and concoctions, with immediate effect. The decanter and the various jars, bottles, flagons and ancillary equipment which were to have been used in such making have now gone to the waste transfer station, where we were reminded that decanters, jars and bottles are the only sorts of glass which get recycled. Larger items such as flagons and pieces of plate glass go with builders' rubble. Furthermore, the recycling fashion has changed, and we no longer bother to separate out the various different colours of glass in the way that we used to.

I celebrated by taking a turn around the Horton Circuit, anticlockwise for once, taking in Horton Country Park to make up the distance lost by being driven to the waste transfer station. I came across just one dead tree, illustrated, felled by natural causes rather than by the chain saw volunteers. It did not look as if it had been very well. But I also came across notices explaining that the managers of the place want to restore chunks of it to the state that it was in in 1485 (not quite sure why they have picked this particular date) and this means that the volunteers will be on the case shortly. I have recorded my objections.

I know that I am not alone in not caring for the current, rather active management of our green spaces, but I do not suppose we will succeed in slowing them down at all - partly because the idea of sitting through some annual general meeting or other in order to make a point is a right downer. A bit of blogging is one thing, participation on the ground is quite another.

PS: further information about jam and sugar can be found in the recent Westminster Hall Debate (something I had not previously heard of. Perhaps a forum where MPs can let off steam about their special interests) on the Jam and Similar Products (England) Regulations 2003, led by Tessa Munt. Small prize for the first reader to navigate his or her way to the full text of this debate. And while I think about it, I should record a family interest, with my childhood family making strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry and plum jams, crab apple and blackcurrant jellies and consuming maybe a 12oz jar a day. As far as I can remember we used a lot more than the 60% sugar they talk about in this debate.