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I'm very fortunate to live on a street which is just 200 yards away from my local river...
The only slight blot on the landscape is a disused factory at the bottom of the street, but that's now hidden from sight behind the long since closed gates...
At first it was a horrible eyesore, a huge mound of concrete blocks and soil dumped behind the gates to deter travellers setting up camp, but over the past couple of years the ground has been populated with grass, ferns and wild flowers and is a haven for small birds. It doesn't look like much now, but in a few weeks time it will be full of poppies and dog roses...normally I would have expected it to be literally buzzing with bees, butterflies and other insects, but it was a bit on the cool side today and the sun was hiding behind the clouds.
Turning the corner, there's a nice path with several benches overlooking the river...the hedge you can see in the background is the hedge surrounding the factory, keeping it totally hidden from view.
...and right in front of that bench is one of the best free meals I've had in ages!
Wild garlic (allium ursinum)...also known as ramsons and various other names. The flowers are simply delicious added to salads (as are the young leaves), with a mild and delicate garlic/chive taste. The bulbs are edible too, but although it's abundant where I live, I prefer to leave them to produce more flowers and leaves the following year.
Unfortunately it's rather like spinach, and the carrier bag full of young leaves that I brought home was swiftly reduced to a starter for two when I wilted it with some olive oil...delicious though!
Along with the wild garlic, I also gathered some young dandelion leaves and freshly sprouted nettle tops...all is currently simmering on the stove in anticipation of the best potato and leek soup ever!
Tomorrow's treat will be dandelion flowers, dipped in egg, coated with flour and crushed wild garlic flowers and deep fried in hot olive oil...go on, try it! You'll be pleasantly surprised...!
Hopefully that will be served with freshly caught brown trout, straight out of the river and in the pan within ten minutes...I've just dug out my fly rod and am preparing for an early session!
This is a perfect place to fly fish...any rain and you can simply hide under the bridge!
...and it's where this little river produced my personal best brown trout of 4lb 3oz a few years ago...here's hoping!
After a pretty horrible and unsettling couple of weeks, it was really lovely to just wander round with my camera, enjoying the little pleasures in life.
Janet
All taken with my back-up e510 & 40-150mm kit lens
The only slight blot on the landscape is a disused factory at the bottom of the street, but that's now hidden from sight behind the long since closed gates...
At first it was a horrible eyesore, a huge mound of concrete blocks and soil dumped behind the gates to deter travellers setting up camp, but over the past couple of years the ground has been populated with grass, ferns and wild flowers and is a haven for small birds. It doesn't look like much now, but in a few weeks time it will be full of poppies and dog roses...normally I would have expected it to be literally buzzing with bees, butterflies and other insects, but it was a bit on the cool side today and the sun was hiding behind the clouds.
Turning the corner, there's a nice path with several benches overlooking the river...the hedge you can see in the background is the hedge surrounding the factory, keeping it totally hidden from view.
...and right in front of that bench is one of the best free meals I've had in ages!
Wild garlic (allium ursinum)...also known as ramsons and various other names. The flowers are simply delicious added to salads (as are the young leaves), with a mild and delicate garlic/chive taste. The bulbs are edible too, but although it's abundant where I live, I prefer to leave them to produce more flowers and leaves the following year.
Unfortunately it's rather like spinach, and the carrier bag full of young leaves that I brought home was swiftly reduced to a starter for two when I wilted it with some olive oil...delicious though!
Along with the wild garlic, I also gathered some young dandelion leaves and freshly sprouted nettle tops...all is currently simmering on the stove in anticipation of the best potato and leek soup ever!
Tomorrow's treat will be dandelion flowers, dipped in egg, coated with flour and crushed wild garlic flowers and deep fried in hot olive oil...go on, try it! You'll be pleasantly surprised...!
Hopefully that will be served with freshly caught brown trout, straight out of the river and in the pan within ten minutes...I've just dug out my fly rod and am preparing for an early session!
This is a perfect place to fly fish...any rain and you can simply hide under the bridge!
...and it's where this little river produced my personal best brown trout of 4lb 3oz a few years ago...here's hoping!
After a pretty horrible and unsettling couple of weeks, it was really lovely to just wander round with my camera, enjoying the little pleasures in life.
Janet
All taken with my back-up e510 & 40-150mm kit lens
) & narrative. It's nice when pleasant locations are still amongst busier places. We've had controversial plans in our township too with Woolworths Supermarket wanting to pull down our town hall to incorporate it in a new complex, but it is used for markets as well as various concerts & musicals etc., which has not pleased too many people. 
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