My favourite season is upon us! Autumn! In summer I suffer from hayfever and I dont like the midges and misquitos. No, actually, I positively hate them, along with the humidity that they enjoy! So its time to come out of my summer hibernation, dust off the old army issue DPM smock, get my wool blanket and 5 season arctic sleeping bag ready, because this season its back to busy again!
This is the season of changing colours, the trees beginning to shut down ready for their winter sleep, a time when the landscape really takes on a palette of colours that never ceases to give me a sense of belonging and comfort. The mornings can be cold, even the odd frost will appear, but its a time when fruits ripen, like the chestnuts, and the mushrooms start to swell and break through the surface of the ground. Its been a wet summer this year and lots of the wild edibles have struggle in my part of the country, hardly any blackberries, very few nuts or berries in general to be honest. We will see how the sloes, the fruit of the blackthorn tree fare later on in the season, but I am not holding out much hope!
Autumn is when all creatures in the outdoors start to get themselves ready for the impending hardship of winter, so much so that it feels as if they are even less bothered by my presence in the woodland, because there are more important matters at hand. This weekend I took a walk round a patch of woodland that I have been going to ever since my mother and father first started taking me over 35 years ago. The deer in the picture below certainly didnt seem to mind me taking its picture!
This is the season of changing colours, the trees beginning to shut down ready for their winter sleep, a time when the landscape really takes on a palette of colours that never ceases to give me a sense of belonging and comfort. The mornings can be cold, even the odd frost will appear, but its a time when fruits ripen, like the chestnuts, and the mushrooms start to swell and break through the surface of the ground. Its been a wet summer this year and lots of the wild edibles have struggle in my part of the country, hardly any blackberries, very few nuts or berries in general to be honest. We will see how the sloes, the fruit of the blackthorn tree fare later on in the season, but I am not holding out much hope!
Autumn is when all creatures in the outdoors start to get themselves ready for the impending hardship of winter, so much so that it feels as if they are even less bothered by my presence in the woodland, because there are more important matters at hand. This weekend I took a walk round a patch of woodland that I have been going to ever since my mother and father first started taking me over 35 years ago. The deer in the picture below certainly didnt seem to mind me taking its picture!
Lots of walking this month, lots of time spent in the woods looking forthe mushrooms as they come up. I want to find some particular fungi this year, so I will need to be looking in certain areas. The cauliflower fungus grows in pine woodland up against the stumps of old pine tree's. This one is particularly delicious in small pieces and fried in tempura batter with a light dip to go with it. I also want to get hold of some Hedgehog Fungi too, I know where some has come up in the past so will be looking there regularly throughout the season. I have a few special spots for the 'Penny Bun' to check as well. There are others that I wont go into right now, but suffice to say that I will be putting a few hours dirt time in, keeping records of my walks here in the blog, or posting videos on my YouTuibe channel, so check there often!
Thats all for now...MTFBWY!
Thats all for now...MTFBWY!