Autumn: time to pick sloes, bitter fruit of the blackthorn. Some make sloe gin. Don’t like gin. For years i’ve made sloe vodka, adding sloes and sugar to the spirit.
Usually i do countryside access warden work on Thursdays. Planned a local walk on October 7th to check on a hole i’d filled and seek sloes in a hedge. A lovely morning, mist clearing to sun. The footdeep hole, filled with stones from my allotment, earth and wood seemed ok. I sat on a bench eating my daily apple, enjoying view of the misty cathedral. Chatted to a runner.
Found one sloe.
October 14th i visited East Blean Wood, a nature reserve about eight km northeast of Canterbury. It lies on Hick’s Forstal Road. A forstal is the land in front of a farm. Hick, variously spelled, was a farmer in the fourteenth century. (Judith Glover, The place names of Kent) In spring the wood has bluebells and wood anemones. In autumn, a hedge of blackthorns where i’ve picked sloes before. I planned a three mile circuit, testing my stamina.
First problem: Kent Wildlife Trust now charge for their carpark. “Pay by mobile” £2.50 a day. Seems they need more income. Can’t do that. Don’t have suitable phone. Changed plan and parked in nearby Knave’s Ash. Nearby should be sloes. The blackthorn hedge was leafless and sloeless. Returned to car. Path i’d planned to walk (CH36) had several notices “Path closed due to subsidence” I walked past the farm buildings as far as a ploughed field. Could investigate from the other end. Another short path (CB76) was clear.
Drove back along Hicks Forstal Road. Saw several squirrels, or the same squirrel several times. Parked off the roadside, like others possibly avoiding parking charge. The path number was missing. I attached an endmarker to the fingerpost, CH36. Walked along path hoping to see extent of subsidence. An uneven stretch with long grass. Realised i was walking into the sun. Compass agreed i was walking more south than east. I had picked the wrong path.
About turn through the long grass. Ate apple for energy. Nearing the road i stepped aside to wee in a hedge. My eyes focussed on . . . . a sloe. I collected twentyone, maybe enough. Avoided spiky thorns. Corrected the endmarker to CH32. If the old marker had been there i wouldn’t have been misled.
As a walk, not good. Failed to do the three mile circuit. Walked about two miles, none in the nature reserve. Failed to find the subsidence. But i didn’t fall over.
And did find some sloes.
Postscript: the following week i was again surreptitiously weeing in a hedge when i spied more sloes. Now have enough to make sloe vodka for christmas presents.
Rambling Brummie 