Hedgerow larders full for winter feast

A cold winter a-comin’, after a pathetic summer?

If you believe the wild berries, that will be the case.

This autumn, they weigh down the branches. In the brief intervals of yellow September sunlight, hawthorn and rowan bushes stand bright and eye-catching in the hedges like clusters of exotic jewellery. Crab apple trees are festooned with yellow fruit. Blackthorns are black with sloes as big as dessert grapes and wild damsons, the size of garden plums.