Winter is coming

Heh heh 🙂 But it is not here yet.

I would love to have a cold winter. Hard frosts and clear blue skies, blizzards and deep snow. Fizz and I have never played snow balls or made snow angels or built a snow dog. That would all make for some memorable photographs.

I think that we are going to get mud. That’s what we had last year. Grey skies, rain and floods and mud on mud. It’s not so good.

It’s sunshine Fizz. You remember sunshine don’t you?

FizzIt’s warm and it makes you feel sleepy.

FizzShe can have a little cat-nap while I photograph some berries.

Sloe BerriesThese are Sloe Berries, the fruit of the Blackthorn. They are traditionally used to flavour Sloe Gin but I like to eat them straight of the tree.

They do have a large pip but also a lot of flesh and they are very juicy. The have an astringent quality, they leave your mouth feeling dry and puckered, the only cure for this is to eat another one.

A lot of people find them too tart and they are just a nibble for me, I have never sat down and ate a bowlful. The flavour is supposed to sweeten after the first frosts but I can never wait and I have been eating them since the end of August.

Sloe Berries

Sloe Berries

Sloe Berries

Sloe Berries

Sloe Berries

Sloe Berries

Sloe Berries

Sloe BerriesThis has been a very good year for Sloe berries.

FizzWakey wakey 🙂

FizzCome on we have got sunshine to see.

Sunshine

SunshineIt is nice out but recent rains have left the tracks a bit muddy. I suppose that it is time to get the old Wellies out of storage.

MudWe shall look back and laugh at this soon.

Looking back at old photo’s I think that perhaps this year I should invest in waders or a full body wet suit. In this next picture she thinks that I am drowning and is trying to administer the kiss of life.

WetCome on it is not that wet yet. Well, not for me anyway 🙂

FizzOur next berry is Black Bryony. This one is deadly poisonous of the painful blistering variety, you wouldn’t eat one. Now that leaves are falling from the trees this is becoming more evident as it scrambles about in the hedgerow.

Black Bryony

Black Bryony

Black Bryony

Black Bryony

Black Bryony

Black BryonyYou might want to clean yourself up a bit, I can’t really take you home like that.

FizzGood Girl.

Fizz

28 thoughts on “Winter is coming”

  1. Oooooh, I love Fizz so much!!! 🙂 She is the cutest most adorable dog in the whole world!! and she is my favorite dog!! 🙂 and sunshine is very warm and it makes me sleep too! especially here in singapore where it is 32 degrees celsius!! 🙂 🙂

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  2. Flurries are in the forecast for Friday in my home. Let me tell you, winter pleasure wears thin by March, snow angels and snowball fights notwithstanding. Since my dog is white he has to wear a little red coat in the winter so I can find him in the snow! If we lived where you do with all that mud, he’d be having a daily bath. Love the tidbits you share about nature in your woods. Delightful.

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  3. I’m a bit jealous about the sloe berries. My blackberries are dwindling down quickly.
    We had a crazy hot day here on Monday (26C). The breeze was warm and balmy. It was very specifically a summer breeze. I didn’t care for it.

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  4. Early predictions are that we will have another very cold and snowy winter. I would happily send some of it your way if I could 🙂
    Poor little Fizz must be a mud ball by the end of these hikes. I’ve come back from many a hike covered in mud after slipping and falling. I have to say I really dislike mud!
    Fall is my favourite time to be out on the trails hiking. I’m not familiar with sloe berries but I’m amazed by the bounty on those shrubs!!

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    1. Thank you Sarasin 🙂 Her owners are going away for the weekend and from tomorrow I am in charge. There will be no adventures. I am told that she is coming into season and I am to be her chaperone. Not on my watch. No Sir 🙂

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  5. What an adventure! The Sloe berries are a lovely color, and you say they are used in making Gin? I tasted Gin once…Ugh!
    I would love to see a full photo of your walking stick. From the end that we did see on the photo it looks sturdy AND interesting. I hope it was made from a limb of a tree or bush and not other than natural. Sorry, I digress from our adventure…the Black Bryony ..bright red and deadly. And there are loads of them! Nature DOES conceal doesn’t she?
    I hope Fizz is rested and dry. She is adorable.

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    1. Thank you Ettel 🙂 I tasted gin once too…. Ugh! Well no, actually I quite liked it but it is not really a man’s drink. You can’t make gin from Sloe Berries you have to buy the gin and then you flavour it with the berries and it takes a few months. I have never tasted Sloe Gin but I like the berries. My stick is a piece of Hazel that has been distorted/ twisted by the Honeysuckle growing up it. Made by a local craftsman that I met, it is a unique piece of wood. Honeysuckle keeps evil at bay and Devils. My old woodland camp was surrounded by growing wood just like this. I also kept Elderberry by my back door as an added precaution and it works, I am never troubled by evil or Devils 🙂

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      1. Now I know why gin is sometimes referred to as Sloe Gin….thank you. Thanks for the info on your walking stick, and I am happy to learn that your back door and surroundings are so well protected from evil and such. I love the fragrance of Honeysuckle, but never considered that it had other qualities. Follow and learn!

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  6. My husband used to make Sloe Gin but as I am not allowed to drink alcohol I never tasted it. My husband found it too sweet but my eldest daughter loves it very much. It is a beautiful dark red colour. We have plenty of sloe berries here too.

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