I have had links with the Cross Bones graveyard for over a decade. I perform several times a year either in the garden or at the monthly ritual for the outcast dead. It’s a special place, a potters field, a pauper’s burial ground, a place where the Winchester Geese were laid to rest.

The lovely garden has plenty of hops plants in it so I spent an hour or two choosing the strongest shoots to train on the twine & thinning out the rest. To say that hops is vigorous is an understatement: I intended to come to the garden last week but had to postpone & in the space of 6 days the Dwarf Fuggles went rampant. Heavy pruning was needed. I took cuttings for my garden.

I’ll be returning regularly to prune & care for the hops with the aim of using the hops to brew a Cross Bones Beer!