Blackberry!
Jul. 6th, 2025 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Public

156/365: First wild blackberry of the season
Click for a larger, sharper image
I always look forward to the start of the blackberry season. I'm not a proper forager, so blackberries are the only fruit I regularly pick wild. In fact, they're about the only fruits I don't really eat much at all out of season; it's extremely rare for me to buy tinned blackberries, for example. The law in this country allows non-destructive foraging, as long as it is for personal use and not for commercial purposes. Obviously you can't go into someone's garden and pick their carefully planted fruits, but a wild bush by a right of way? Yep. Anyway, here's a photo of the very first blackberry I picked this year: 6th July is a bit earlier than usual, which says something about our dry, warm summer so far.
In other news, it's always irritating when people do idiotic things that mean I have to come down on the side of other people I dislike. There's been an example of this today: the leader of Brighton & Hove Council, Bella Sankey, has said she has reported Rod Liddle to the police for a Spectator article in which he said things would be improved by a nuke on Brighton and another on Glastonbury. I detest Rod Liddle, for a whole variety of reasons -- but in this specific case, the Spectator article in question is very obviously satirical and about as worthy of police attention as John Betjeman's "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!" was -- which is to say, not at all. Please, Ms Sankey, don't make me defend Rod Liddle again. It's really not something I want to be doing.

156/365: First wild blackberry of the season
Click for a larger, sharper image
I always look forward to the start of the blackberry season. I'm not a proper forager, so blackberries are the only fruit I regularly pick wild. In fact, they're about the only fruits I don't really eat much at all out of season; it's extremely rare for me to buy tinned blackberries, for example. The law in this country allows non-destructive foraging, as long as it is for personal use and not for commercial purposes. Obviously you can't go into someone's garden and pick their carefully planted fruits, but a wild bush by a right of way? Yep. Anyway, here's a photo of the very first blackberry I picked this year: 6th July is a bit earlier than usual, which says something about our dry, warm summer so far.
In other news, it's always irritating when people do idiotic things that mean I have to come down on the side of other people I dislike. There's been an example of this today: the leader of Brighton & Hove Council, Bella Sankey, has said she has reported Rod Liddle to the police for a Spectator article in which he said things would be improved by a nuke on Brighton and another on Glastonbury. I detest Rod Liddle, for a whole variety of reasons -- but in this specific case, the Spectator article in question is very obviously satirical and about as worthy of police attention as John Betjeman's "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!" was -- which is to say, not at all. Please, Ms Sankey, don't make me defend Rod Liddle again. It's really not something I want to be doing.