It was the last day of school before the summer, and it was unseasonably warm. England in July, clear skies, 25 degrees; crazy! So, I went to pick up the kids from school at the usual time and found that they were invited to one of their friends’ houses to play. Perfect, I thought, and I agreed to collect them an hour and a half later.
The friends house is effectively just down the road and around a corner or two. About five minutes by car, but on this day I didn’t have the car, and on foot I was looking at a thirty minute walk, maybe more, but as the crow flies, it was more like five minutes in a straight line, if only there was a straight line I could follow. A straight line like a railway for example.
As luck would have it, I happen to have a railway by my house, and that same railways passes the school friends’ house, and looking at the satellite imagery, there looked like a footpath I could take on the other side of the track. So I gave myself ten minutes to make the journey and started walking.
Over the tracks I came across my first problem. Cows.
Cows are notoriously inquisitive, and as soon as they saw me stood on the style they stopped what they were doing and inspected me.
I’ve been in cow fields before, many times. But this felt different, there was something in the air that told me to be cautious, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they somehow knew what I had been doing that morning. Could they sense, somehow, that I had prepared a slow cooked joint of topside that very morning? Should I risk it?
I asked them if I could pass through their field but they said nothing and stood their ground. I decided to find an alternate route. Another way to cross the railway, and another path around the village.
About a hundred meters up the track there is a bridge.
A bridge, and a path so rarely traveled there are trees above the tracks.
Two minutes from home, over a bridge and through a couple of kissing gates, and you’re there, immersed in the green of the English countryside. Fifteen years living on this street and I had no idea that this was here.
Wild berry crumble washed down with nettle beer, now I know where to come.
This is my new favorite foraging spot, and the air is thick with insects, bees, butterflies. Grasshoppers leap from the thick undergrowth.
It took about thirty minutes, but its a safe route between friend’s houses without having to cross the busy main road. And I get to bore the children with wildlife trivia as we walk. Perfect.
Duggan's Dig 
Leave a comment