Butterflies to berries

It's the big changeover as the butterfly season gives way to the fruiting so this weekend we've been foraging. Yesterday it was blackberries. Today it was ceps, sloes and damsons.

I'd been staggered by some of the bulging bags of wild mushrooms I'd seen people carrying in Horsell woods last week. Yesterday I asked a chap for a look in his bag. He was a Czech who'd been out foraging in the woods since coming off night-shift at 7 am. His bag was full of ceps (Boletus Edulis), called penny buns by the Victorians and porcini by Italians. We found a few today but I think others had been there before us.

Near Chobham we found blackthorn laden with sloes, all ready for picking. Then a man told us where we could find damsons. The damson trees were heaving so we picked a few pounds of those to make jam and maybe some chutney.

As we were picking the fruit, the warm summer sunshine came back and that brought out a few butterflies, some of which will hibernate, so they were stocking up on ripened fruit. I thought this comma looked nice on the blackberries so that's my blip for today. I guess this means we're jammin' again.