Just desserts

There are, as we all know, many disadvantages to going away on holiday, not least the fact — so ably nailed by Alain de Botton — that we are forced to take ourselves with us. How relaxing it would be to leave home without one’s own deficiencies and inability to enjoy oneself when doing nothing. By the same token, some absolute essentials for happiness have to be left at home: in my case, my dessert plum trees.

This year, in mid-August, we went away for just one week. The ‘Denniston’s Superb’ greengages were just ripening when we left, so I picked as many as I could to put in the fridge. I topped up the sugar solution in the wasp traps hanging from the branches. A week later, we returned to find that almost all had been substantially damaged by wasps (the traps having dried up in the meantime), while the rest had fallen to the ground.