twilight blossom

30 years ago when we first started coming to Creepy Woods there was an already  neglected and overgrown walled orchard, many of the fruit trees had gone, though 4 apple trees survived. We cleared their part of the orchard, including stripping the trees of invading bramble, and for a few years we collected the fruits of our labours. Then the wheel turned, our visits became less frequent, and finally, again neglected, we ignored the the trees, abandoning them to their fate. Now, some years on, only one apple tree remains, I'd imagine that too is living it's twilight years. Fallen, with most of it's roots truncated or exposed, and slowly disappearing beneath the undergrowth, this solitary tree keeps on flowering. Respect.

The tree

Set in the burgeoning sea of stinging nettles that edges Creepy Woods stands the tree. It's not the only tree, there are four of them, four Oaks in a line, no doubt the former boundary to a field or paddock, although it's the only tree climbable, and with the capacity for three or four people to lounge.  We'd  meet at the 'tree' when foraging, or just if was a nice day. It was a favourite place to just hang out. I remember it being a great place for sunsets, the land gently rises and you're afforded an expansive canvas for the sun to express himself. Then the fields were far more extensive, a broad green buffer between Christchurch and Highcliffe. Though thirty years on, and several parcels of development later, the trees stand in a shrinking island of post agricultural land, a shadow of their former glory. Still, they, and the woodland, remain a haven for wildlife and a good place to forage wild resources.  It was stinging nettle again for me today. Well, it's free food, delicious and nutritious. I'd postponed my walk today because of rain, when I did set off I was well dressed, and I walked home in my t-shirt; that's when you know springs here proper. 

Nettle

Collected my first Stinging Nettles of the year whilst walking back from the food fortress today. I was near Creepy Woods, it had rained, everything was looking green and nettles popped to mind. Of course they would, spring and Creepy, means it's nettle time. We've been collecting nettles from Creepy Woods for 30 years. Creepy isn't the real name of the woodland, I don't think it has one, but that's how we've always known it, so called after Creepy Mansion, a posh home which for many years stood derelict and dilapidated on the edge of the woods. Nettles are one of our many overlooked free foods, delicious, nutritious and versatile, use them in soup, as a veg or dry them for later use when they take on a Nori quality and flavour.  They are a well used resource in this abode. And, I love that we've collected the same natural resources from the same places year on year, for so many years.