19/01/12

My adventures* today were in the scrubby margins between the railway tracks and the river. The camera I carried was really just an excuse; if you leave the footpath and stare up into trees without an excuse people get curious.





I also took a photo which accidentally looks a bit like one of those hipstamatic i-phone pics. I can't decide whether I like it or not!


*Lunchbreak. Small-scale adventures only!

:)

Just a quick blog entry to show you the e-card my brother Chris drew for my birthday - I love it!



I wish my cat would really ride in my basket like that.

Come to think of it, I wish she would help out a bit more on the allotment too...

2012

Christmas and the solstice have passed, the holiday is almost over and we've started a new year. I'm noticing signs of spring before we've had any proper winter weather - there are tiny buds on the trees, Daffodil shoots coming up in the hedgerows and Lords and Ladies peeking out from under the leaf litter. Today I even saw Cow Parsley in flower (confused perhaps) and eggshells dropped far from the nests of careful (but not so wise) birds.





My resolution is to make a positive, personal record of 2012 in my paper diary. I am going to write about, draw or photograph one event at the end of each day - something that has made me happy.

Autumn seems to take its time in passing. A few leaves still cling to the trees and shimmer in the low sunlight, even now the winter frosts have arrived and we're approaching our darkest day.



My allotment is in slow-motion, which is good news because I have very little opportunity to get over there at this time of year. Last weekend I moved a few blackcurrant bushes and took cuttings from some wild gooseberries. Most of my fruit trees are bare, but one small apple which I grew from a pip is still green and energetic. There are lots of wild and self-sown leaves to pick, my favourites at the moment are sorrel and cornsalad. I have a small patch of alexanders, which when it resurfaces each year on my boggy land-locked plot always amazes me. I plan to try a liqueur, perhaps John Wright's Gin Alexanders. I'm not convinced I'll have it ready by Christmas though...

Foggy morning

Maiden Erlegh Lake, Reading

Pictures without words

I carry my camera almost everywhere and I just love the light at this time of year. I keep wondering if I should start another photo-a-day project. Last time I didn't post the photos online; I stuck them into a book. Looking through it now I am swept back in time and I remember the way I felt when they were taken. They are not records of what I actually did; they are simply images of things I saw. I didn't intend that they would be symbolic, but they inevitably turned out so.

Perhaps instead I will just try to update my blog more often. I might actually manage that if I post pictures without words sometimes.

Today I spotted some mushrooms in the woods and I thought they might be Wood Blewits. They were growing near an old pile of wood-chippings, under deciduous trees. The tops were greyish lilac and slightly wavy, the gills pale and the stems mottled with a brighter purple. I took one as a sample so that I could do a spore print (results to follow), and as soon as I got back from my little foray I consulted Rogers Mushrooms. As usual, when I got my results from the easy key I was filled with doubt. What I had thought were fairly easily identified common edible mushrooms could actually be pretty much anything...

I'm a cautious forager. Since I've been actively studying fungi I've not found any that I'm confident enough to eat. The only ones I've been able to identify with certainty were Fly Agaric - the classic red and white toadstools of fairy tales (eating them didn't even cross my mind...).





I don’t actually like mushrooms that much as food, so you may wonder why I’m bothering to learn about them at all. Well, apart from the fact that fungi are absolutely fascinating and often very beautiful, for me foraging isn’t just about finding food - it’s about learning and exploring. It's a treasure hunt. Finding interesting and useful things satisfies my hunter-gatherer instinct. I think that's also why I enjoy photography - with a camera I gather information and I collect memories of things I've seen or made.