There looks to be a glorious crop of elderberries on the way.
As always, seeing these swelling juicy berries I think of my late father and the glug, glug of his demi-johns of ‘home brew’ elderberry wine* which during the 1970’s he used to nurture along, snuggled up in the warmest place in the house that he could get away with (against the chimney wall in the bedroom; actually I’m not sure how he got away with that at all!)
It may be the dutiful daughter in me, or the hunter gatherer, that thinks I should be ‘making something’ of this bountiful hedgerow crop. Oh well, I’ll settle for making a blog post, the birds can have the feast.
*Along with elderberry wine there was dandelion, elderflower and most pungent of all (in the brewing at least) comfrey.
Uphilldowndale 
I LOVED this! SO SO SO understand and empathise xxxx
I remember one of my parents neighbours making all sorts of home brews. That included bottles of ginger beer one of which would ‘explode’ now and again! xx
After my father died, I disposed what was left of his ‘wine cellar’ (the cupboard under the stair) he’d not by this time made wine for many many years. I was horrified to find some of the bottle had screw caps, which I though must be dangerous. I wore as much protective clothing as I could muster!
I share similar memories. When my Dad died we found several bottles of vintage parsnip wine in the cupboard under the stairs. One sniff was all it took; we disposed of it humanely. Drinking it would NOT have been safe!
Parsnip…if you’ve ever left a poly bag of parsnips festering in the bottom of the veg box, you’ll not doubt the potency of parsnip wine !