Sloe picking

As is traditional over the bank holiday Mother's Ruin embarked on a useful and worthy project.. Bottling the damson gin – 6 hours of aromatic gin fume exposure and 120 bottles later... I'm now all ready to open up later this week in time for the E17 Art Trail.

And if that weren't enough, braving escaped lions in Essex and the gloomy promise of summer thunder storms I went for a ramble along the River Lea and discovered the sloes were ready for picking. Look at these gorgeous sapphire beauties.