Jam! On Sunday afternoon we picked 3kg of crab apples, then a little later 2kg of wild damsons. I would have picked more, but the bag-holder was starting to complain… This afternoon, on a short leg-stretch around the Willey lanes, I couldn’t resist another small bagful. (If I don’t pick them, they’ll eventually drop and rot – such a waste!)
The damsons are now in the freezer, but their time will come. Meanwhile, there’s crab apple jelly on the near horizon…

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Church Preen – it’s a steady pull from the parking space near the school to the top of the hill, but we’re not here primarily for exercise. Today we’ve come armed with bags for foraging, but we’re disappointed. The blackberries are tasteless and not worth the effort of picking, there are no damsons (within reach, that is) and the wild greengages are not ripe yet. So – we’ll just enjoy the walk. After those hot days in August, 18C and intermittent sunshine is perfect.

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An evening wander along Shirlett Lane, on the last day of summer, and a stroll around Wyke and Benthall on a cool afternoon on the first day of autumn. (I’m going by the Met. Office’s definitions, not astronomy. The former always seem closer to what’s actually happening out there…)

Shirlett: view OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=365790&Y=298180&A=Y&Z=120

Benthall: View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=365630&Y=302615&A=Y&Z=120

 

After the long, hot and dry summer, the last few days have felt decidedly autumnal – much cooler and rather wet. It’s certainly autumnal around Willey – fallen leaves beside the lane, hops galore, sloes, dozens (understatement!) of damsons, crab apples and blackberries (no photos of the latter – we were too busy sampling them). Jam-making may be imminent!

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Down Stanley Lane from Chestnut Coppice parking space, then across to the bank of the Severn. Upstream beside (but not always in sight of) the river, and back up through the aforementioned coppice. A very pleasant stroll on a fine afternoon!

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I had a leg stretch earlier today, kicking my heels around the warm streets Shrewsbury while the car was serviced… It’s still warm in the evening, and I need a breath of fresh air too (not that Shrewsbury is particularly polluted). It’s not just warm – it’s quite humid, and there’s not a breath of wind. I’ll create my own breeze if I keep moving.
The clearance of fallen timber from the December ’24 storms is under way at Shirlett; away from the timber piles, the helleborines, now in flower, are struggling on, though it needs a burst of light from the flashgun to reveal the colour in these somewhat dowdy wild orchids. There’s colour in the western sky too, when I return to the car. What a difference an hour makes!

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Even the route of this short wander is vaguely butterfly-shaped! There are speckled woods on Round Hill. A little further on, the woods are being taken away (more victims of the storm of December 2024?). Continuing along the Smithies and on up to Nordley Common, there are butterflies everywhere. The breeze is making them restless, but there are sufficient posers for a photo or two, especially on a patch of fleabane, which they all seem to enjoy. There are gatekeepers, meadow browns, red admirals – and a couple of those eye-catching common blues (not the easiest to photograph – even if they land, they’re rarely still for long).   Just as well, because otherwise there’s very little colour in the landscape. That will come with autumn, just over a month away now.

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Things are ripening fast! The harvest has begun, though the fields of wheat around Willey haven’t been touched yet. Any time now, I suspect – they’re a lovely golden colour. Meanwhile, the blackberries at the foot of Bould Lane were looking good too (they were delicious!).

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Wednesday evening 22 July: It’s only a few days since we last walked this way. Not many changes to see, though a distant field of wheat (or barley) now appears to be a candlewick bedspread. It’s still quite hazy, it’s cool under the trees, and again there’s no-one else around.

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A pleasantly warm summer’s evening – good to be out, but nothing energetic… We’re revisiting Boldings pools, this time taking the slightly longer route up the field to the old school, leaving the pools to the last few yards. The harvest has begun  – completed, by the look of it, around here. All that remains is dozens of big bales of straw. In the first field, they’re all arrayed in lines; elsewhere randomly scattered, most of them glowing in the evening light.

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