Quick post tonight as I'm absolutely shattered! It's in two parts as I'm unable on my iPad for some reason to add extra photos... Grrrrr....
So, basically it's back to work time. I've had a smashing two weeks (the girls are awesome) but I'm as tired as hell. Before teacher time, I was blessed to spend a few pleasant days back in Wales for the wedding of the superduper Bryn and Martyna who live in Angelsey. Brilliant wedding, lots of craic, and many thanks to the lovely Owain and Daisy, respectively for having us to stay. We managed to fit in a bit of foraging, spying big juicy damsons near Llanfair (the one with the supposed longest place name in Britain... See photos below). Damsons of course, being bigger and sweeter than sloes or bullace.
Then, in our final weekend before term started (nearly two weeks ago now!) I managed to persuade Levi to join me on a foraging mission near our home in Exeter. As mentioned in previous posts, everything seems to be ripening much faster than last year. It's a bit weird but I can only assume the exceptionally good weather is responsible. Even the sloes were starting in places to wilt. And that was another weird thing. Last year, a real struggle to find sloes anywhere (all the inclement weather???), this year the sloes and bullace were fricking everywhere. Like literally DRIPPING off the trees. We got enough for two or maybe two bottles of gin but we didn't even make a dent. We got a big bowl of blackberries, though again, many were ruined already (and we were competing with several others who had also spied them) and though we didn't gather any, the haws and rowan berries were fat, juicy and ripe. Despite a few scratches, and nettle stings, it was a pretty successful operation. The message for foragey folks now is: get out there now, it's an early autumn clearly, and you don't want to miss out on any of the fun!
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