Fruit

Having passed the longest day, things are already showing signs of the fruitfulness of autumn. Wild Cherries have been ripening for several days now and the piles of discarded cherry stones which lay around the place, point to the feast that birds are making of them.  Cherries are not the only fruits to be appearing in the hedgerows at the moment and this morning's walk revealed a couple more. The first of which was one you don't expect to see growing wild but nevertheless, we stumbled upon a few canes of Blackcurrants ripening in the sunshine.

Native to northern and central parts of Europe, they are not often seen growing wild and we had thought the birds would have made a meal of the fruits by now, but perhaps they're not quite ripe enough for them yet.

A more familiar fruit was also beginning to form in the hedgerows around Shipley Lake.  Blackberries are always popular and a freezer full of last year's crop has been keeping us going ever since last autumn, so it's good to see we have a huge amount of blossom on the Blackberries again this year.

Already the fruits are starting to form and a few young, green ones are visible amongst the pink-flushed flowers. Looking forward to another bumper year for blackberries!