Cherry Brandy

On my last visit to Birmingham Market I bought a load of cherries. At only £1 per lb they were a real bargain, but there's only so many cherries a person can eat so I used the last pound to make some cherry brandy for later in the year.

Wash, dry and de-stone a pound of ripe cherries and put in a Kilner jar.

Cover with 200g of sugar and shake well.

Cover and put in a cool, dark  cupboard for 3 days, shaking every day until the juice comes out of the cherries and dissolves the sugar.

Add a 750ml. bottle of brandy. It doesn't have to be the good stuff, I used Tesco Everyday Brandy.
Put back in the dark cupboard and leave for at least 3 months before drinking.  You can then eat the fruit if you wish.

We've had quite a long day's cruise today, by our standards anyway.

After leaving Cuckoo Wharf we turned right at Salford Junction onto the Grand Union Canal and went up the 5 Garrison Locks.  These were all set against us and are definitely in need of a bit of TLC,  some oil and grease wouldn't go amiss either.  After lunch we carried on up the 6 Camp Hill Locks and finally left the industrialisation behind and found some countryside again. Amazingly, there's more litter and rubbish in the canal here than we encountered on any of our trips round Birmingham and the BCN and Roger has been down the weed hatch twice today, which is unheard of on our boat.

We're now moored in the village of Catherine de Barnes.  When we arrived there were 3 boats already on the visitor moorings, all leaving half a boat length between themselves so we reversed back to the bridge and squeezed in on the end. 

We've got a satellite signal for the F1 tonight and the dinner's in the oven, time to put my feet up.