Today we have eaten our first wild alpine strawberries. How they arrived on the farm is not really known but they are growing in nooks and crannies of our stone barns and of the wall in front of the house. We used to grow them in our garden in Oxfordshire with good success but have never enjoyed them so early in the year. They have not been helped in any way by us and there is virtually no soil just mortar in between the stone, yet we have a fantastic crop. The sun and warmth we have enjoyed in April and May has given us an excellent crop. It just goes to show that there are pluses to a modicum of global warming. Spending a few minutes in the sun picking them was a pleasant respite to working on the web site.