Earlier in the month, I walked up to the village notice board and put up a card, begging for the loan or gift of glass jars, because however many I have, full, each year, the wheel only ever seems to come about half-circle again in the form of emptied and returned ones. People in Barley are very good indeed about responding to such notices: within a couple of days, I have been telephoned several times and gone off to collect bicycle baskets full of jars, and carrier bags and boxes of them have appeared anonymously on the doorstep.
