On walking around the meadows now, we see that there are very few berries left. The berries that are left are presumably the ones that the birds don’t really like. We have very few Rosehips but they are pretty much all still left on the bush.

In fact, I saw this tell tale little sign today, left on the top of the five bar gate next to the rose hip bush. Presumably hunger made the bird try it, but it certainly didn’t like what it found.

Also left are Ivy berries – both black and green, which I believe are unripe ones. Ivy berries are a vey important food source for when everything else has gone and so I’m very pleased to report that we still have a healthy stock available.

However, the tasty sloes and hawthorn berries and all the other berries that seemed to be dripping off the hedgerows in huge abundance in October are now nowhere to be seen these days and I feel guilty about harvesting some of them for the frivolous reasons that we did such as the flavouring of some Gin or, worse, to make an autumnal arrangement to beautify the house for a fleeting few days. Its a life or death struggle going on out there at the moment and they need all the help they can get.