Still ticking over...

What I didn't say, yesterday, was that Richard has now been unwell for a month - ever since we set off on our holiday visit to N Ireland, in mid-August. Generally he tries to fend off illness by pushing his way through it... but that isn't working any more.
It's a gastric upset, and at first he just thought he'd eaten a meal on the ferry out that had given him minor food poisoning. A month on, it clearly wasn't that - or not only that - and we're now waiting for the results of some tests.  I can see him feeling apprehensive.  The chances are that it is some kind of infection, I think, but of course there are other thoughts in both our heads. Fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, I gathered up our small damson crop this afternoon.  The tree - a 'Shropshire Prune' - is not very vigorous, and does suffer from leaf curl, but this year it has produced a proper crop for the first time.