Desperately seeking ants

20th August
On the filming front - we need ants, Wood Ants in particular and something we thought would be common around here, we've been searching - they are not. Wood ants are a large species which makes them easier to film and they make nice visible nests out of pine needles. You can buy ants online, someone will send a starter colony that you can set up where you like and we will be doing this with other species over the winter but right now we need a well established colony.

There’s an abundance of fruit ripening here now, so I've been busy preserving. I gathered green walnuts for pickling back in June but despite consulting Jane Grigson on the matter my pickled walnuts are inedibley salty, I think I went wrong on the measuring side of things. I’ve now also bottled and jammed plums, made pear tarts and tried out various cakes using fruit. It was M. Bontette’s birthday recently so I popped round with one of my creations (will I ever stop torturing these people?). Mme B commented afterwards with words to the effect that it was quite a ‘ribsticker’, a quality one might not be looking for in a summer cake.