The story changed.

This was going to be about how we managed some relatively novel (for us) foraging on holiday in Wales, including wild spinach, sorrel and samphire. NAIB made a tasty risotto with the spinach.

But days after arriving home, expecting to find a few windfall apples, we were walking along a road we’ve travelled hundreds of times, when NAIB and I stood and stared, and said, ‘Wow!’ A giant puffball where we’d never seen one before.

It came home with us and she is busy preparing it right now. Here below is the samphire, growing in the crevices of the rock. You’ll appreciate that we only took enough for a garnish.

Going Viral XXIV: From the horse’s mouth.

Sign outside the betting shop: STAY SAFE! KEEP YOUR DISTANCE! Sounds like excellent advise to me!

These last few weeks we may seem to have forgotten and foregone our response to the corona corvid viral pest, but we are still here and safe and healthy. This sighting was worth sharing. We hope you’ve had an excellent summer with plenty of free vitamin D from the sunshine. Happy Autumn; keep safe and keep praying!

God bless,

WILL.

Photo from CD.

It may not look much

A mound in the scrappy woodland beside the Pilgrims’ Way to Canterbury, clearly much enjoyed by mountain bike riders. You’d pass by ,,, but stop it a moment. This is a barrow, an ancient, Bronze Age burial.

Like many another in England, it is next to a route that would have been tramped over, ridden on horseback, even before the Bronze Age, back when our ancestors depended on flint and whatever they could kill or create with sharpened stones.

And here we are today, passing by without a thought, but remember the poor hobbits, captured by the barrow-wight, and pitch your tent here tonight!

A CAT

She had a name among the children;
But no one loved though someone owned
Her, locked her out of doors at bedtime
And had her kittens duly drowned
In Spring, nevertheless, this cat
Ate blackbirds, thrushes, nightingales,
And birds of bright voice and plume and flight,
As well as scraps from neighbours’ pails.
I loathed and hated her for this;
One speckle on a thrush’s breast
Was worth a million such; and yet
She lived long, till God gave her rest.

A Cat by Edward Thomas from Last Poems.

Edward Thomas was aware that joining the army was a dangerous decision during World War I. Of course, we know he did not come home.

The all-killing, all-devouring cat herself loses her kittens. She kills because that’s the way she is, till God gives her rest. When I arrived at L’Arche’s Glebe garden the day after reading this poem, I was met with this sight. There are at least three cats that patrol the place.

We pray that God may give us a changed heart, that His world may have a rest from War.

Working hard in the garden

The worker bees are enjoying the sunflowers, and they don’t mind a long day in the sun. They have more stamina for the heat than I do. Come the winter, when many of these workers will die, my friend P will hang out the sunflower seed heads for the birds. As always, P’s sunflowers are taller than mine by a good metre!

Thank you!

There came a knocking at the door, and there stood A & I, Mme Frog’s son and daughter. ‘Mum is deadheading and sent you these!’

How could we not rejoice?

Thank you, Frog, and may your writing garden continue to prosper. The flowers are lovely and it was so right to include the almost black dahlia buds. We sat down for coffee at the garden table when the young people had left us and I found myself admiring the five pointed black stars of the sepals safely holding the incipient flower. Thank you for opening my eyes to that beauty, hidden in plain sight.

Will

Follow the link to Mme Frog’s blog.

Discovery apples are back

The Goods Shed in Canterbury had both Discovery, the early eating apple, and Grenadier, its cooker companion. Both tempting, but I wasn’t sure when I’d use the Grenadiers. We have local strawberries for Sunday Lunch.

Do these apples mark the beginning of the end of summer, or one of its peaks? Discoveries are the key ingredient in Disco Cider from nearby Doddington, one of the most refreshing summer drinks we know. Picked and pressed now, they’ll be ready to drink next summer.

Your good health!