You Make Me Feel Like Damson

or Murder on the kitchen floor.

Converting the Damsons we picked yesterday into jelly (or curd, I'm not sure which it technically is).

Raw Damsons, freshly washed

Getting steamy

Red flesh peeps through

Our improvement on dangling the bag from the cupboards (and getting juice everywhere). A novel use for an old tripod.

Drippy

Adding the sugar

Gloopy

Sticky

Bubbly

Hot

Boiling

Shiny

Wax disks being carefully applied

Harrock Hill

Supposed to be a big walk today, but I woke up with a sore throat and runny nose, so we chose Harrock Hill instead as it can easily be cut in half, which we ended up doing. Tried to keep up Vitamin C levels scoffing brambles on the way round, but we're really struggling to find sweet ones. Not a great year for fruit so far.

Harrock Hill elevation

Harrock Hill route

.

Sheep grazing and wind turbines in the distance

Curious Cow

Managed to get round to the Pub just in time for opening.

If only pints really were this big

Recently harvested fields

Contented Cows (note the three turbines in the distance)

Llangollen

A slight variation on the usual Llangollen route. There is another route nearby that goes around and over Velvet Hill. There is a small track that goes between the two, past Valle Crucis Abbey, so we lumped in the hill as an optional extra, to bulk it up to more of a full day's walk.

Llangollen elevation

Llangollen route

Very sunny day but extremely windy on the hills.

Bracken on Velvet Hill

View from the southern end of Velvet Hill

View from the north end of Velvet Hill

Gill holding on to her hat in Castell Dinas Bran 

Castell Dinas Bran ruins

Castell Dinas Bran ruins

Castell Dinas Bran ruins

View from the Castell

Panorama from the Castell, with the Eglwyseg Rocks to the east, possibly Llantysilio mountains to the west