Swathed in Vines.

The whole (not the back) of our cottage is swathed in vines. I love the foliage, and the grapes to me are just as beautiful as flowers.

The variety I've planted is called Baco or Bacco. It's the disease resistant root stock that was imported into Europe from the USA after the Philloxera epidemic of the late 19th Century.

Baco is not an eating grape, although we do hand-press the fruit for juice. Otherwise they get picked quite early and put onto the compost. To leave them on the vine simply invites the huge, and dangerous, sugar-hungry Hornets right into our world.

At present we have two individual vine plants that cover the cottage. Some years back we had but one, and it annually produced over 200 bunches of grapes. I don't think I can be bothered to count them again, but this year there are probably well over 300.

It's almost juice season, although I'm already drinking last years juice (not our own) in a slightly different form.