Sunday 17th July - At a snail's pace

Apparently snails have no reverse gear. Is that true? I didn't know that.

But this unsubstantiated utterance has nothing to do with anything much. Today is proceeding at a snail's pace. Because heat, sun, more heat, more sun.

That is, slow, and indirect. We can see snail trails on the bricks of the patio; they seem to go in aimless meanderings between the pots at one side, and the agapanthus tubs and kitchen herbs at the other side.  

Today's excitement is I have made some sauerkraut, or rather more truthfully I shall know in a week or two if I have made some sauerkraut. 

Here's the recipe I have used this time, from Abel and Cole. I've been very tempted by their vegetable boxes but so far resisted.

The jar comes from Lakeland; I bought it several years ago. It has a valve arrangement so that it lets the fermentation gas out but stops the oxygen from getting in, according to the destructions that came with it.

The items on the right are not for the sauerkraut - that is just cabbage, salt and caraway seeds. The next is to construct a plate of cold salady-type things for our tea.