Grape Harvest

I have a grape vine in front of my house, which provides dappled shade during hot days in the summer, not that we had many of those this year, but whose leaves fall in the Autumn, letting the winter sun through to warm us on frosty days. Last year a blackbird sat on the grape vine, eating the grapes and dribbling grape juice down the window, leaving long, sticky trails. This year the blackbird is gone, killed by pesticides? died of old age? and the grapes hung blackly from the vine, inviting us to pick them. They were very high up, so Manuel climbed the step ladder and dropped the grapes into the big, plastic bowl that I held below him.

I began squeezing the grapes through a sieve into a bowl. After an hour I had a bottle full of juice. There seemed just as many grapes in the big white bowl. I'll have to think of another way to do this!