Choose the Best Jacket

Well the solar eclipse was a bit of a damp (cloudy) squib where we were, but never mind there's a lunar eclipse in September and another solar one coming to the UK in 84 years or so...

Meanwhile, something that requires more immediate attention is choosing your favourite book cover from the 3 images below. 
Please leave feedback and select your favourite, there will be a free signed book in the post for the most helpful comments, when they actually arrive.

Number One, Seasons

Number Two, Cherries

Number Three, Illustration

We hope you like the look of these book jackets. 
Please do leave comments, it really helps. 
I think it is a difficult choice, but that is a good thing.

February Feelings

Winter is always a lean time for foragers, especially if (like me) their specialism lies in fruit and nuts. February can seem like the harshest month but the plants show the truth is otherwise. Even though there have not been a huge amount of new posts during the cold season, it does not mean that I have not been busy…

What does that strange aura around the moon mean?

In fact I have been busier than normal editing and proofing my latest book. This exciting new volume will be based on the Urbane Forager project and is currently with a designer, so the first editions will not be too far away now. Don’t worry dear readers; you will be the first to know when and where it will be available.

Ahh!

I have also been busy packing up my work office (yes, I have a day job too). The company is moving, which for me is a shame. I have always cycled most days from Southampton, where we live, to Hedge End, for work, but now the office is moving to Segensworth (Fareham), which is twice as far to pedal, so I will need to carefully consider my travel options.

During my time in Hedge End the Urbane Forager project took shape and became popular. My endless lunchtime walks brought me into close contact with the trees and I began to recognise the blossom and then the fruit. From there the whole thing grew organically and I identified a great abundance of fruit trees in the area.

I will also miss the cycle ride, my Winter morning and evening rides are brightened by the drifts of snowdrops and crocuses that I spy in the roadsides. 

I always hear a nightingale in West End thicket as I take a short cut to the A27, and I even saw it once. Not that these are glamorous birds at all but it is rare to actually see one.

I will have start to walking around the Segensworth industrial estates now, and begin to map fruit and nut trees across a whole new area.

Walk Out in Winter

I hope all our readers got what they deserved from Santa this year. We were busy making wreaths for the home and even found Mistletoe on the local Pitch and Put golf course. Our Mulled Cider and Elderberry Wine seemed to go down very well at various Christmas celebrations.

After a while though, I was getting cabin fever and so we had to get out for a couple of hikes, to blow away the cobwebs and burn off the mince pies. The New Forest is always very convenient for us and we ended up marching out for a brilliant frosty walk with friends around Bramshaw.

We also braved a blustery day and scrambled up and around Old Winchester Hill in the fantastic Meon Valley. This ancient place was once a Bronze Age Enclosure, then later an Iron Age hill fort. It has burial mounds on top and the incomparable view stretches for miles, out over the Solent to the aforementioned New Forest and the Isle of Wight.

There is an abundance of interesting landscapes to be enjoyed on the South Downs but the Meon Valley and especially the area around Old Winchester Hill, are too interesting not to explore in greater depth. Our trip took in beautiful villages, fields of Watercress and the meandering Meon River that was once the main transport route to London from the South coast, before the silting up of the estuary (now an important nature reserve) allowed Southampton to take the lead.

On the way up the hill, we took refuge from the wind's icy blast by spending a while clambering around in a grove of  Yew trees, which for all I know, could have been there since the first human occupation. Then it was out onto the crest, to admire the view and attempt to cling on to a wildly flapping kite.

While the kids were enjoying being dragged about by the howling gale, I discovered a plantation of Juniper bushes, hunkered down and clinging resolutely to the side of the hill. These shrubs are the only native UK fir trees and are now seriously endangered due to disease and also because of their spiny leaves being nibbled up by sheep and rabbits. Interestingly I also found Juniper on Danebury, another local Iron Age hill fort. 

I gathered a pocketful of ripe, black Juniper berries to take home; their exotic aroma adds a unique spice to many meat recipes, as well as being the main flavouring in Gin. It was a good job I was wearing gloves, as the needles of this bush are quite savage. By the time we got home, we were thoroughly tired and all of us had a ruddy glow in our cheeks.

So readers, what have you resolved to do differently in 2015? Personally, I'm going to finish and publish, the Urbane Foragers Field Guide. Actually, I think I'm going to need a more snappy title for this forthcoming book, so please, send in your suggestions...