Mrs Down's Diary

Not that we shall be drinking it all. It is for guests at the shoot, for after dinner when we have friends round for supper and as a winter warmer when it's very cold.

The brambles were a bit of a disappointment this year for bramble whisky.

We have the equivalent of about ten bottles going in demi-johns, but we usually do much more. The brambles were just not as good and a friend told me that if you pick them after the end of September, "the devil has spat on them." So I don't fancy that in my whisky.

What I might do is use up the rest of my frozen raspberries from last year and make raspberry vodka.

Lovely stuff and such a gorgeous colour when it is bottled.

You need a stiff drink this year when it comes to reviewing how the land work is going. Just as John thinks he has got on top of the job. More rain.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette November 5