Foraging/scrumping

The weather finally blew itself out, and this afternoon turned into a perfect one for walking - lots of cloud cover to supplement the sunblock, and a decent (though not cold) breeze - so I went out for a bimble.

I've been having a bit of a mental block about my normal route; it has felt just too long, and that's hampering me, so today I decided to force the issue.

Turns out I coped fine: took me 1 hour and 45 minutes (when I'm fit I can do it in 1 hr 15 min!), but that did include plenty of "snack" stops, so it's probably not as bad as it sounds!

And having done it once, I now "know" I can do it again. [Seem to get this issue every year, so it might make sense to just start each season with that walk!]

Scrumping:

• M. Lorin's apple [he has said in the past to help ourselves, but I haven't asked him recently if that's still OK] - very nice, and much better than anything I'm finding in the shops;
• rapeseed leaves - the ones that have sown themselves, rather than the newly sown crop. Experience tells me they're going to be ploughed in anyway, but they still belong to someone;
• grapes - I came past a vineyard that hadn't been harvested yet, so took a small part of a bunch to "check they were OK" - very nice actually, and much sweeter than last year!
  

Foraging:

• hazelnuts;
• sloes;
• blackberries;
• damsons [OK, so they were mine, and don't count];
• pig damsons [from Isabelle's tree; they don't collect them, and her tree seems to fruit later than ours];
• plums [not sure if they are ours or Philippe's, they were right by the boundary but on the road side of the hedges]
  

I'm sure I managed to get my 'five a day' on my walk, so I'm having pasta for dinner!