Tag: fruits

#365daysofbiking Early arrivals


September 12h – The harbingers of autumn come in many forms, but few more pristine and beautiful than a freshly cracked open conker husk.

I found these windfalls on my way home from Shenstone – still a little unripe  but nearly there – lying in the road. Like most men, I’m indelibly programmed to pick up a stray conker wherever I see it.

And when they’re beautiful like these, that’s not hard.

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#365daysofbiking Sugar me

September 2nd – Another product of wayside roses that’s beautiful but dare I say it, a little more mundane: The sugar-laden rosehips.

Rosehips are loved by jam, syrup and wine makers and, of course, many birds who devour the energy laden confections to fatten up for winter – and thankfully there seems to be a good crop this year.

They are beautiful colours, too…

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July 23rd – Pleased to see again that the walnut tree, appropriately situated in the village of Wall, has a great crop again this year. It’s the only such tree I know of locally, and the only one I’ve ever seen that reliably fruits.

A few more weeks and I might grab a couple of handfuls of the still green nuts to try pickled walnuts. Always fancied giving them a go.

July 7th – Working late, I returned at sundown and winched my way up Shire Oak Hill from Sandhills. I noticed that lots of trees along here are laden with developing fruits – beach nuts, acorns, pine cones and these, unusually abundant sycamore seeds, or ‘helicopters’ as we used to call them as kids.

They seem to be already ripening – but this is only just the beginning of July. 

Am I imagining it, or are we heading for an early autumn?

Setember 10th – I believe in random acts of kindness. I also believe in random acts of guerrilla planting. Myself and people who know me, at this time of year, engage in collecting the seeds and fruits of deciduous trees and shrubs – acorns, sycamore seeds, beech nuts, sloes, haws and so on – then spread them randomly on thin hedgerows, scrubs and wasteland. I’ve spread patches of cowslip on Clayhanger common, scattered wildflower seeds down the Goscote Valley, and collectively we’ve populated canal banks, footpaths and barren places with tree saplings.

We support the trees, because, well, the trees they need support. Do. It. Now.