I was leaving to work in the Glebe garden in Canterbury: as I closed the gate, the aptly named Gatekeeper butterfly was enjoying the nectar on Mrs T’s hebe bush, later flitting a few inches and displaying its wings.
Down at the garden a red admiral stopped around long enough to be snapped up – in the nicest possible way.
A great start to the day.
My friend was worried because he had not seen any activity around his smart new Bug Hotel so we went to look at the little old one that has been there for four years at least. Here it is: the red arrows are pointing to bamboo tubes being used by a leafcutter bee; the yellow arrow shows where she was working when the picture was taken. I think there’s a corner of a wing visible. She lays an egg in each of the leaf-lined bedrooms she creates, together with enough honey to see her babies through to adulthood. Will they be back next year?
To gather blackberries you must be prepared for scratches and nettle stings. Lime flowers are usually within reach, though wild cherries are not. Sweet little hedgerow plums also come with nettles and sloes grow on the blackthorn.
Walnuts, once you’ve found them, are often in easy reach of the upright human, but the trouble comes later. To prepare them for pickling, the unripe nuts in their green shells – as seen in our last post – must be pricked all over with a fork before steeping in brine for five days. Pricking the nuts releases the juice, which is a very effective fake tan, or rather a fake 50 a day smoker’s tan, such as is rarely seen today. I could wear gloves, if I could find XXXXL size that would not split as I pulled them on. So I’ll go with the deeply unfashionable nicotine addict look.
And I shall join Mrs Turnstone, who gathered walnuts with me, and others who did not, in enjoying the nuts in due season. (Happy Christmas in advance!)
I think we can declare the foraging season open! There have been a few wild cherries that the birds have not eaten, not enough to make a mall jar of jam, but the first blackberry was picked today, 6th July, about 9 days earlier than expected. Like the cherries, it was a little tart.
Last week I was harvesting lime – linden – flowers by the river, when a man, who looked Mediterranean, saw me. He grabbed a handful of the flowering branch-tips and plunged his face into them, inhaling the scent deep into his lungs. What memories were quickening for him?
This evening I went to look at a tree I had marked as likely to be in full bloom today. So had someone else. Being taller than most people, there were still flowers within my reach. I went home along a path I rarely take, and soon reached another lime tree in flower, scenting the wind. Plenty for me and those who might come after me.
Our other discovery was two walnut trees in public thoroughfares, ripe for foraging the soft-shelled nuts for pickling. As our daughter said, the longest day is past, Christmas is coming!
Will Turnstone 