Community, Parish Council & Village
If not, let Steve Hallam help you! Steve will lead the guided autumn fruits walk 2024 to seek out berries, soft fruit, nuts and seeds, that are now out in abundance. He will explain their folklore and advise you which ones should not be eaten (and what will happen to you if you do!) You should expect to see around 20 types of berries, fruits and nuts.
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Steve Hallam will lead a guided walk at Hillhouse Wood on Saturday 23rd September to seek out autumn fruits. Join him and you can expect to learn about local berries, soft fruits, nuts & seeds. He will let you know which ones to eat, and which ones you definitely need to leave alone. You will also hear the folklore associated with them. You can reasonably expect to see around 20 different varieties.
Previous years have revealed a pleasing quantity of late flowers as well. On one recent Autumn Fruits walk, walkers saw hundreds of:
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Autumn Fruits in the RainIt appears in recent years, that the Autumn Fruits Walk tends to act as a magnet to rain. This year was no exception. However, the weather forecast gave plenty of warning and so the 7 participants came prepared.
As for the walk itself, we again saw how the presence, location and abundance of plants vary from year to year. This time there were lots of the Continue reading “Autumn Fruits in the Rain”
Steve Hallam will lead a guided walk to seek out fungi, berries, soft fruits, nuts & seeds. All of these are now out in abundance. To join Steve you should meet him at the Old Church at 2 pm on Saturday 26th October – wear suitable clothing! You should wear strong boots or wellies as we may encounter
The West Bergholt Baby & Toddler group’s Autumn schedule includes a wide range of activities from Apple Picking to Divali. The full list is shown below, please be aware that some events may change at short notice. There are 2 opportunities for a local trader/business/advisor to attend, Continue reading “Baby & Toddler Group Autumn Schedule”
Glorious Weather for Autumn Fruits WalkSteve Hallam reports that this year’s Autumn Fruits walk had two noteworthy characteristics. Firstly, it was blessed with the most glorious weather – wall to wall sunshine and windless. Secondly, this was one of those years in which the title should have been ‘Autumn fruits and flowers’.
Steve Hallam will lead a guided walk to seek out berries, soft fruit, nuts, seeds & fungi. All of these are now out in abundance. To join Steve you should meet him at the Old Church at 10 am on Saturday 20th October -wear suitable clothing! You should wear strong boots or wellies as we may encounter Continue reading “Autumn Walk – Fungi, Berries & Fruits”
Essex Police are warning residents not to leave their home in the dark. With the nights drawing in, the tell-tale signs of empty houses become more apparent. This is a bonus for burglars who prefer to target empty homes unseen and avoid confrontation.
As the days get shorter if you work away from home, or even pop out to get the children from school, by the time you return home it may already be dark. A house in darkness says no one is in especially if your neighbour’s houses either side have lights on and show other signs of being occupied. If you back onto open farmland or have parking areas or footpaths to side or rear this may be even more apparent.
Create the “Illusion of Occupancy”, when its dark make your home look like you are in. Leave lights on or put them on timers or daylight sensors to come when it gets dark. Remember though no one lives in the hall or on the landing so if you leave these lights on supplement these with lights on in rooms that you would normally occupy at that time of day i.e. lounge and kitchen.
A carefully placed imitation TV or “Fake TV” can further add to that illusion of occupancy by making it look like the television is on. Some burglars may also listen at windows or letterboxes for signs of activity, so consider leaving a radio on within your home.
Don’t forget the outside of your property too, if burglars see that it is lit they are less likely to approach for fear of being seen.
Leave lights on, with energy efficient bulbs it costs very little nowadays and yet may save you lots!
Fairies & FruitsOn the 16th October I ran the fourth Autumn Fruits nature walk around and through Hillhouse Wood. The fact that I am able to make this statement is a slight surprise because the previous evening’s weather forecast had heavy rain bang on the time of the walk, and light rain for an hour either side. On which basis I had anticipated being on my own. Accordingly, I was quite pleased to hear heavy rain falling when I woke up, suggesting that it was moving through earlier than forecast. And so, by around 9.45 the rain was becoming showery and the clouds were lightening. But would everyone have been put off? As it turned out the answer was ‘no’ with nine hardy souls arriving at the church. Naturally, as this was the first year I forgot to bring any sweets, two of them were young children. Typical!
This year, unlike in 2015, I had ample time to survey the route and knew there was plenty to see. But, as a result, this would make it a relatively long walk (about two hours) and I wasn’t sure how long the youngsters’ interest would last. As I’ve commented on before, it has been a surprise to discover how the presence, location and abundance of plants vary from year to year. So each year there are pleasant surprises with the occasional disappointment. This year’s disappointments were an absence of Black nightshade, virtually no Dogwood berries or Sloes, a reduced variety of flowers, and the fact that the crop of our one Plumtree had already finished.
On the happier
side of the coin, this year we had another great display of wild hops, a relatively large number of Holly berries, good displays of both Black and White bryony (no relation) and a pretty flower that I’ve not previously seen – Creeping cinquefoil; a flower that is easy to mistake for a Buttercup.
And so to my two mini-walkers, Abigail and James. It turned out that they each had a fairy – Abigail’s was called Rosehip and James’s was called Blueberry. They were keen to see the real-life berries that their fairies were named after. We would see both, but my challenge was to maintain their interest at a high enough level to keep them in the group until we got there. Luckily for me, we came across Rosehips fairly quickly, which pleased Abigail and made James keen to find ‘his’ berry.
Even without the incentive of sweet rewards they were both happy playing the ‘Hip or Haw’ challenge. This kept them going until I managed to find some Sloes – as close as you can get to a Blueberry in north-east Essex. In the end, they got nearly half way round before James’s little legs reached their limit and their Mum took them home. I thought they both did very well.
Autumn Fruits with Steve Hallam – 16th OctoberSteve Hallam will lead a guided walk to seek out berries, soft fruit, nuts, seeds & fungi. All of these are now out in abundance. To join Steve you should meet him at the Old Church at 10am on Sunday 16th October -wear suitable clothing!
Steve will explain the folklore about the finds, which ones should not be eaten – and what will happen to you if you do! You should expect to see around 20 types of berries, fruits and nuts.
The walk will take in Hillhouse Wood and surrounding hedgerows, and will thus be a little longer than normal.
Strong boots or wellies should be worn, as we may encounter long wet grass!