Aug 31st, 2014

Author: donich_admin

Insects, Fungi and Food

We saw some fantastic insects today, and the first of the autumn fungi are starting to appear. An enormous dragonfly landed on the path in front of me and obligingly let me take his picture. Then a lovely peacock butterfly followed suit.

Nature’s harvest is obviously ready very early this year. There are hazelnuts on the path and many of these have been opened and the contents eaten – probably by squirrels. Blackberries (or brambles as you prefer) are about ready and I will make my jelly this week. Rose hips are everywhere. We are starting to see various species of interesting fungi appear – not something I know much about so I will need to start trying to identify them.

R has a theory that the year is divided into four seasons of three months apiece… So his winter is December/January/February, his spring is March/April/May, summer June/July/August and autumn September/October/November. I’m not sure that this is always entirely accurate in Scotland where quite often winter seems considerably longer and summer a lot shorter – but by his reckoning, today is the last day of summer.