Sunday 27 September 2009

Foraging for mushrooms near Sidmouth and birdwatching at Dawlish

Today saw me getting out of the flat and into the countryside for a bit of foraging action with the chaps and chapesses from Devon Foraging Courses. We met near Sidmouth this morning, and headed off into the woods to see what we could find. Not a great deal, as it turned out, but we did find a few chanterelles, porcelain mushrooms and a large number of dubious - if not downright poisonous - specimens. The woods were beautiful, with the beech trees just beginning to change colour. We all had a good chat along the way and it seemed like a fair few folks were ex-Londoners who'd decided to head to Devon for the good life - and found it! I will definitely be going on the next forage in October.

From there I drove along the backroads near college (followed by the usual Sunday driver mentalists), aiming for Dawlish Warren nature reserve on the other side of the Exe. Took the wrong exit on the M5 but found Dawlish eventually. Dawlish Warren itself is a weird combination of tacky seaside resort and nature reserve, out on a long spit of land. Once away from the crowds and arcades, it's lovely and quiet, with lots of birds to be seen - including a lovely female Stonechat and a beautiful, tiny olive green warbler (too dark to be a Chiff Chaff so I'm left wondering what it was) among other things. The weather was stunning - you'd not know it was October in a few days. There are vast amounts of brambles down there, all covered in blackberries, so I'll be heading back there next weekend to go picking.

Now I just need to find myself a source of sloes and I'll be sorted! Devon is proving an excellent choice so far...

Back to university

And so it begins again - I've just started a horticulture foundation degree at a college in Devon and thought I'd use this blog as a reminder of what I've done each week. So here it is.

Week one - freshers' week - was mostly about meeting my coursemates and getting the important bits and bobs done, followed by a walk around the college's beautiful grounds (arboretum, walled gardens, you name it).

Week two - classes begin properly. Monday is landscape design and construction followed by principles of business; Thursday is propagation, biological concepts and professional practice, and Friday is evolutionary development and classification and soil science, followed by a practical session in the afternoon (just when we're all knackered). Our tutors are a funny bunch and I think I'm going to enjoy their classes. My classmates are from all walks of life: aged between 19 and 65, men and women, they each have a different background and level of horticultural knowledge and all have something to bring to the group. A nice bunch!

Assignments this week included producing a client checklist for garden designing, finding two relevant articles in the trade/general press or online, learning plant idents and collecting a soil sample (half a bucket!) from our local area.