Tuesday 22 September 2020

Collecting Sloes on the Last Day of Summer on the Horsefield

 What a wonderful day, but according to the weather forecast this is going to be our last day of summer.  We had temperatures of up to 25C and it was a pleasure to be out.  The spring sown barley is now harvested, the fields at the moment remain as stubble.  No doubt they will be ploughed before long.  Gone are the fresh greens of the Horsefield grasses to be replaced by the bleached fawns and gold of the seed stems.  No longer is the meadow studded with purple and yellow, instead the hedgerows are turning autumnal with greens becoming gold and fruits heavy on the shrubs: large succulent blackberries, bright red rose hips, deep scarlet haws and sloes thick on the blackthron bushes as many as I have ever seen, many with an enticing yeasty bloom.  I picked a large bag of these to freeze and to shortly turn into sloe gin for cosy winter minds beside the log burner. 

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