Nature’s Berry Bounty

Autumn fruit in the neighbourhood

Throughout the year, doggo and I are always watching out for flowers as we ramble around the neighbourhood, but this year berries are just as plentiful.

It’s definitely not the same as foraging in the countryside, but even just on our walk around the central(ish) area of the UK’s tenth largest city, we spotted many berries.

Above are laurel, and hawthorn.

And it’s still only August.

According to folklore, berries this early mean we’re in for a hard winter, especially if the berries are on the rowan tree … As above.

However, it would seem that all these berries are more a sign of unusual weather patterns than that they’re forecasting harsh times later in the year.

It’s just as well to take some kind of identifying guide with you when out foraging for berries — they’re not all friendly. For example, snowberries (above) are poisonous.

Also, of course, because we’re in a city, many of these berry plants have actually been planted deliberately in gardens so you can’t very well just amble on in there, fill your basket, and then make off with them …

People often cultivate these plants so wildlife has some food freely available.

There will be blackberries somewhere, but not on the roads we walked down to get these photos. So I’ve included a painting of blackberries in various stages of ripening being admired by a fairy. Because … yay fairies!

There will also be elderberries and sloes on other streets.

Sloes, in particular, are grown around here for infusion in gin. What a good idea!

This story about nature’s bounty in my city neighbourhood was prompted by Dennett:

© Susan Alison 2021