Friday 29 January 2010

B is for Blackberrying

This is a new meme wot I am going to do, called Alphabe-Thursday, only I haven't quite got the hang of all the linking that is required. And I haven't yet worked out how to put the logo in my side bar. Sorry I missed last week but I do have a note from my mum. Anyway, as my blog tries to stay positive at all times I am planning on participating in this Alphabe-Thursday with happy and nostalgic posts. When I was little I really hated school and sometimes my mum would see I was so distressed that she would let me stay at home for the day. It was usually worse after the long summer break and we would go blackberrying across the fields near where we lived. Mum and I used to walk a lot together as she didn't drive so we knew a lot of the places where you could get lovely fruit away from the exhaust fumes from the traffic (which in those days were laden with lead) and she would make blackberry jelly with them. It had to be jelly because the pips in jam got under father's plate (false teeth, you see) We used to make little talismans out of cloves wrapped in a bit of muslin to keep the wasps away as we were both very frightened of wasps. It works, you know! And we would walk and walk and identify the wild flowers and try to identify the trees and sometimes we would find ourselves somewhere we hadn't been before.
If you would like to read other people's take on the letter B go to Alphabe-Thursday Letter B
And if you are visiting me for the first time please feel free to look around at this and my crafty blog Not Cute and Not Funny

8 comments:

  1. For some reason, I don't think I've ever tasted blackberry jelly or jam. I may have to give it a try. That is a nice memory to have though with your mum.

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  2. what lovely memories of time spent with your Mum! I love blackberries and blackberry jam! I did not know that wearing cloves kept the wasps away. I will try that when I go out to garden this summer. I don't mind the honeybees, but the wasps are so big and they are a bit scary.

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  3. I am from Tennessee and I can not wait to go pick wild blackberries on our farm! I make jam because I do not like the seeds either. My mama's favorite was blackberry cobbler and I would make that for her with the first berries I picked....sad memory, my mama passed away last summer but I will still make the cobbler in her memory.

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  4. Oh, the memories!We used to go off on our bikes, Mum would pick and I would eat and then we'd make the jam - we were a frugal family and never had shop bought jam so the only jam we ever had was blackberry and apple!

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  5. I miss blackberrying ... now that i am in a city they are hard to get to ... and yes, we always made jelly, not jam.

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  6. Blackberry jam, oh so good! I've never picked my own blackberries, but I eat them on my morning cereal each day.

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  7. Thank for stopping by my blog and weighing in on the Tesco topic.

    I am such a product of this modern world, that when I saw the word 'Blackberrying' I assumed this would be a blog post about your mobile phone! I much prefer the tasty blackberries and sweet memory you have described. Your post also put me in mind of a popular picture book: Blueberries for Sal by Robert McClosky, in which a young girl goes berry picking with her mum and has a rather interesting adventure. I don't know if it is in print in the UK, but you might like to track it down at your local library and have a peak.

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