Stotty Strollers

Autumn

‘In the dim green underworld beneath the bracken fronds are vivid splashes of red and yellow and tawny,
the weird and elfin harvest of the different kinds of fungi.

Some are rounds of bright scarlet with greyish spots, like the toadstools in modern fairy pictures;

others waxen yellow, honeycombed beneath, or pearly white, shaped like umbrellas turned inside out by the wind

So observes Flora Thomson in her book ‘ Country Calendar' and as autumn begins, the woods and fields around Stottesdon are a testimony to this – fungi of all kinds, part of nature's free harvest, thriving on the damp ground beneath the first of the early morning Autumn mists. . September is the month of berries – bramble, rowan, hawthorn, black bryony, spindle and the thorny sloe, a harvest which will later attract flocks of winter birds. The small dark purple berries of the sloe make an excellent gin or vodka liqueur, best left to mature as a Christmas treat - if you can! Although these hints of autumn are colouring the hedgerows around our villages, summer lingers on, so September gives us the best of both worlds.

Bramble scrambles through most hedgerows and has provided food for man since Neolithic times. However it is not just useful for its juicy black fruits, the twigs can be used in wicker work and the plant provides natural dyes – black from the young green shoots, slate blue from the berries and orange from the roots.

Wilding, scrab, scrog and gribble could be a quartet of hob-goblins but they are actually all local names for the wild crab-apple tree, there are many along the routes of the ‘Stotty Strolls'. Although the fruit is somewhat unrewarding to eat, the blossom it bears in the spring and the fact that it is often a host to the magical mistletoe are two redeeming features. Have you tried Crab-apple and Rosehip Jelly - an excellent accompaniment to game.

Wood mice and bank voles particularly appreciate hawthorn berries and hazel nuts - and if you are planning to pick the latter you will need to be particularly watchful, for the moment the nuts ripen, the local small mammal population will decide that its time for harvest home and the hedgerow will be stripped bare.

In October the leaves are slowly beginning to change colour as winter draws near. Time for a last serious picnic on your walk perhaps, and a time to appreciate the autumn colours, sometimes vivid and almost dazzling and other years soft and subdued as they fade from green to yellow, orange and red.

Birds will be seen feasting on the autumn fruit crop and towards the end of October, look out for the arrival of the first redwings, followed closely by fieldfares newly arrived from their breeding grounds in Scandinavia . Both these birds move about the countryside in large, often mixed flocks – their distinctive calls being the first real heralds of winter…

With our thanks to Liz Smith for this seasonal contribution




Autumn ‘In the dim green underworld beneath the bracken fronds are vivid splashes of red and yellow and tawny, the weird and elfin harvest of the different kinds of fungi. *Some are rounds of bright scarlet with greyish spots, like the toadstools in modern fairy pictures;* *others waxen yellow, honeycombed beneath, or pearly white, shaped like umbrellas turned inside out by the wind* So observes Flora Thomson in her book ‘ Country Calendar' and as autumn begins, the woods and fields around Stottesdon are a testimony to this – fungi of all kinds, part of nature's free harvest, thriving on the damp ground beneath the first of the early morning Autumn mists. . September is the month of berries – bramble, rowan, hawthorn, black bryony, spindle and the thorny sloe, a harvest which will later attract flocks of winter birds. The small dark purple berries of the sloe make an excellent gin or vodka liqueur, best left to mature as a Christmas treat - if you can! Although these hints of autumn are colouring the hedgerows around our villages, summer lingers on, so September gives us the best of both worlds. Bramble scrambles through most hedgerows and has provided food for man since Neolithic times. However it is not just useful for its juicy black fruits, the twigs can be used in wicker work and the plant provides natural dyes – black from the young green shoots, slate blue from the berries and orange from the roots. Wilding, scrab, scrog and gribble could be a quartet of hob-goblins but they are actually all local names for the wild crab-apple tree, there are many along the routes of the ‘Stotty Strolls'. Although the fruit is somewhat unrewarding to eat, the blossom it bears in the spring and the fact that it is often a host to the magical mistletoe are two redeeming features. Have you tried Crab-apple and Rosehip Jelly - an excellent accompaniment to game. Wood mice and bank voles particularly appreciate hawthorn berries and hazel nuts - and if you are planning to pick the latter you will need to be particularly watchful, for the moment the nuts ripen, the local small mammal population will decide that its time for harvest home and the hedgerow will be stripped bare. In October the leaves are slowly beginning to change colour as winter draws near. Time for a last serious picnic on your walk perhaps, and a time to appreciate the autumn colours, sometimes vivid and almost dazzling and other years soft and subdued as they fade from green to yellow, orange and red. Birds will be seen feasting on the autumn fruit crop and towards the end of October, look out for the arrival of the first redwings, followed closely by fieldfares newly arrived from their breeding grounds in Scandinavia . Both these birds move about the countryside in large, often mixed flocks – their distinctive calls being the first real heralds of winter… With our thanks to Liz Smith for this seasonal contribution			Amanita Sloes Blackberries Cortinarius rufo-olivaceus Hawthorn Berries Autumn Leaves Redwing