Foraging

When I was out yesterday, I found some elderberries and some fruit that looked like blueberries but without the crown where the flower used to be. At home, I found out they were the fruit of the blackthorn tree: sloes. Oh-ho, I thought.

My mam said her dad used to make elderberry wine from the bush in the garden, but it looks like a bit of a faff. But then I found you can do the same thing with elderberries as you can sloes. Oh-ho, I thought.

Today, I went back to the same spot, but a different way – forgetting about the roadworks on the A10 – and gathered.

I was just setting off when I saw a couple of four-by-fours acting suspiciously, so I hung around to see if I could tell what they were up to. Less than half an hour later, they drove off. I have no idea what they were up to, but I didn’t see any dogs, and anyway, they weren’t there long enough to have been hare coursing, which is illegal here (and rightfully so in my opinion).

When they’d gone, I went to big Tesco, marvelling at the unrecognisable new layout of the A14–Bar Hill junction. On my shopping list was kilner jars and 1.75 litres of gin.