Fruits of the Forest

No this isn't my West Highland Way post, but just a ramble about a little walk I did yesterday afternoon, around and about a park near where I live.

The park is called Rother Valley Country Park and is essentially a filled in open cast coal mine that was flooded about 20 years ago (guessing) and has been 'cultivated' to seem natural. As natural as it can be given that there is an area dedicated to watersports and a cable ski on one of the 'lakes'. But as anyone who knows me knows that I usually move off and away from the trodden path and get interested in things along the wayside, and often things that aren't that obvious.

The walk itself was just a little 5 mile amble. I'd seen a tweet from @Documentally and @Tookiebunten about the passage of the seasons, the summer almost over and the abundance of autumn soon to follow. A lot of people who use the park seem to do so with eyes just towards the lakes and the kiddies playground areas. My focus was turned to the hedgerows, and what abundance there is to be had there!

With the early warm weather in May, followed by the recent rain it seems that the plums, gages, damsons and sloes are all becoming succulent and ripe:
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In addition the Highland Cattle were looking pretty tasty too, though doubt I could get away with foraging one of those...

I wandered up the little hill towards the wooded area; far less populated. There are some great potential basha areas there, despite the local villages being only a mile or so away.

Carrying further on there were the ubiquitous blackberryes and elderberries, more sloes and plums. Being slightly higher up than those near the lakeside, they were slightly less ripe.
And of course there was other signs of people having been foraging...

Further on I came across a patch of what looked like Comfrey. Unusual in this part of the park, but great fertiliser for Tomato plants! There were Rose hips coming through too, with an array of Hawthorne hips ripening up. I saw a Ray Mears programme a while ago with his friend Gordon, creating a kind of very messy Hawthorn jelly and very briefly contemplated doing the same. Then remembered the classic line 'there's no evidence that Bronze age people actually did this'. Well sod that then! Going to stick to making Sloe gin, and anything else alcoholic with the fruit I'll plunder!
I ended the day with the showers it began with.

As a last point I walked for the first time for ages in my old walking boots. Very weird after using my Terrocs all the time.