Footnotes 

Summer

4 May 2025

May 4th 2025

I like the unpath best

 – Nan Shepherd quoting a child in The Living Mountain

Introduction

It may as well be summer although for me May is late spring. Bluebells are still in the woods, swifts only just arriving in the south of the country. Not yet the north, because I’ve checked here at the River Mersey.

But I’m in shorts, sandals, tee shirt, which is my favourite wear because I love the sun and time of year when long days lie ahead.

 

Foraging

I read Richard Mabey’s book Food for Free some years ago. It’s like a continuation of the sixties in 1972. That’s how I understood it, as an eccentric but interesting subject.

‘Eccentric’ is from the viewpoint of normality when a centre is destabilised and changed. ‘Interesting’ is a viewpoint often mine when I think “There are more things in Heaven and Earth…than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” That’s an astute line from Hamlet.

The idea is obviously true, if you appreciate the wisdom and art of other cultures such as Indian Vedanta, Chinese Taoism, and Japanese haiku. They are not explicable in Western terms (for Japan try Zen and Japanese Culture) which means the familiar is limited. Thus, of course, there is food to be found in fields, parks, and the countryside.

As Mabey says, “It is easy to forget, as one stands before the modern supermarket shelf, that every single one of the world’s vegetable foods was once a wild plant.” His book is outdated but a good read, and can be supplemented with health knowledge. This book for example is simple and informative.

I’ve been searching for hawthorn as I walk, collecting flowers, then blending them in smoothies. “Hawthorn flowers!” a man remarked, then obviously thought I was a nutter when I explained. “Eating flowers!” a woman exclaimed then asked sensible questions, tried the flowers herself, and concluded with a definitive “cool! enjoy your evening!”

We can engage with the unknown, and the unfamiliar, with either prejudice or curiosity. Although it’s not socially simple, because what someone thinks is prejudice might be knowledgeable rejection, which means the prejudice is theirs. With a similar reversal, and relevant here, curiosity is a form of knowing.

Hawthorn is a heart tonic and vasodilator, well known in Western and Chinese herbalism. When the flowers fade I’ll make a tincture for later in the year, then add berries to the blend. Berries are the usual ingredient but flowers and leaves are related. 

Nettles are another good food with iron, vitamin C and other nutrients. They’re bland, hence my remark about flavour below, but are good in smoothies.

My current recipe is a banana, honey, tofu, kale or nettles, hawthorn flowers and leaves with flavouring. Coffee is a delicious flavour or creamed coconut, root ginger, or cocoa powder. I might use nuts rather than tofu, a few dates in addition to honey, and other variations.

Featured Walks

My leading photograph is below the South Downs, at a hamlet called Swanborough near Lewes. I prefer the hill country in the north of Britain but lower hills are also pleasant. There’s a walk from Swanborough to Brighton, which I did a few times, or the entire South Downs Way is possible. The area was made a National Park only recently in 2010. You could walk the path with stealthy wild camping although not all of it is good and day walks are probably a better idea.

At the other end of the country, possibly the scariest UK walk I’ve done is Liathach in the Scottish highlands. There’s a section of path which is narrow and eroded and if you slip, stumble, or become unbalanced, it will be the last thing you do. I remember evaluating the drop. Perhaps not sufficient for an immediate demise but enough for serious injury and no one will see as you lie probably unconscious and definitely bleeding. 

This is what Liathach is like. The viewpoint path I take is off route, which is why I refer to conserving energy and not continuing.

 

 

There’s a camp site in Torridon near the Youth Hostel. With basic but adequate showers although you can’t, unfortunately, have dinner in the hostel. At least you couldn’t when I was there. The site is unbearable for midges when they arrive at the end of May. When they did, I left, relocating to Mull for sea breezes and easier walking.

I’ve not walked in the Howgills but probably will some time. The grass is short, views are good, and “mostly it’s fairly quiet” which after a few years of walking (or many years) becomes a significant attraction. You know there are superlative places to walk, Great Gable in the Lake District for example. But after ten, fifteen, maybe twenty climbs, and in all seasons, the thrill subsides, crowds discourage, parking becomes annoying and quiet is better.

 

Conclusion

The hot summer of 2018 is a time I don’t forget. I spoke about it with a friend noting the reliability of morning warmth. Every day, week after week and how relaxing that was, not the usual uncertainty.

Everyone complained but I liked it. It’s why Spain is popular for holidays, I said, so enjoy it here. I remember waking in my tent, relieved to leave it for cooler but sunbathing air. High in the Lake District hills, on a three day circuit above Wasdale, with a good walk ahead of me.