Oct 5th, 2015

Author: donich_admin

Garden Raiders

I’ve been doing some brambling in the evenings this week, trying to get a decent amount together to make enough jelly to last a few months.

We have quite a lot of brambles along the edges of the garden, and I worked my way up the whole left side of the front garden and gathered a big bag of them. I thought I’d get a load more at the back, but strange to say, the bushes are all trampled around, and there’s scare a single berry to be seen. I could almost have thought that we had been raided by boy scouts, except that there were some distinctive piles of poo which makes me think that our friends the deer have struck again.

So while I was in foraging mode, I went down right to the bottom of our wood where we have a little stand of hazel trees, and I was hoping to get some nuts to bag up for Christmas. But again, not a whole nut to be seen – and on the ground, some evidence of the culprits. A hazel nut shell opened as though with a chisel is apparently a sure sign of red squirrels have eaten them – and there is an example I found in the picture.

So no apples, no brambles and no nuts – but to be honest I would rather have the wildlife.