Blackberries 2

Following the blackberries picked in the margins of trolley 584 and noticed at reference 1, I thought yesterday afternoon to take myself off to Hook Road Arena, a place where I have picked in previous years, to see what, if anything, was left there. A motorised expedition on this occasion.

First stop, the big clump about 100 yards away to the left as you go in the main entrance. There clearly had been quite a lot and quite a lot of them had gone to waste, but there were not enough left to be worth picking now.

But not to be defeated that easily, I worked my way around to the right. Lots of bushes, which must have been of a different variety, with rather smaller berries - of which there were some left. But they did make for slow picking. On the other hand, if the warm weather held, there would be a respectable second crop in a week or so's time.

After a bit, I had had enough, but thought I would take a look at the other side, on the right as you go in the main entrance. Somewhere else I have picked in the past, but now badly infested with convolvulus and other stuff, so I don't think that there had been much this year at all.

But I was puzzled by the large green leaves poking through at the back. Google Images' first effort was a bit wide of the mark, mainly because he didn't work out what it was I was interested in. Zoomed in a bit more and the second effort was much more promising, with comfrey at the top of his list followed by various kinds of tobacco. Not completely convinced, but comfrey looks like a better bet than its various neighbours in Bentham & Hooker.

BH reminds me that I once grew the stuff on the allotment, something to do with making an infusion to pour onto peas as I recall, but I don't suppose it ever got that far.

The day's modest haul. About one baking tray's worth when it came to freezing them a bit later. But enough to flavour up several goes of stewed apples.

And posed on top of the substantial kissing gate at the exit, also rather overgrown with convolvulus. Maybe I can't expect to get focus both right and left. And I don't think the human brain could attend to both right and left at the same time in a real scene like this - which makes me wonder now whether the eyes accommodates - that is to say change their focal length - as they flicker around the scene.

PS: there was another southern hawker in the back garden today, this time over the larger pond. A pond which contained plenty of mosquito larvae, so perhaps there were adults about for the hawker to pounce on. See reference 3 for the last one.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/trolley-584.html.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=comfrey. Not very helpful.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/more-bugs.html.