Of sloes and snails and butterflies

I was lucky to catch the 'wood white' butterfly land on lavender and sage in my kitchen garden today. All animals/insects/foreigners instinctively dislike something or someone that is not the same as them. The butterfly flitted about and then realising that my camera and I were not going to harm it eventually sat very still and quite close to me.

Tonight I opened a 2010 bottle of sloe liqueur that had been gathering dust. I make liqueurs and clean forget about them. The sloes are ready to pick in the late autumn and traditionally one waits for the first frosts to soften the skin of the berries before collecting them. There is a field which I discovered on my hound walking where the sloes grow wild and very prolifically.  On the side of the field that gets the morning sun, the sloes are fastest to grow, big in size and lighter in colour. On the side that gets the afternoon sun, the opposite applies. I soak my sloes for years in eau-de-vie and sugar. This is the result:

Something else I came across in my kitchen garden today:

Don't ask!

Photos copyright SvD.