The flora and foliage of Warley Place

I shared my pictures of the beautiful daffodils of Warley Place the other day. This is an Essex Wildlife Trust site.  If you want to find it, you will need to travel from Brentwood station. It's a few miles so you can walk for about 50 minutes or drive. A bus will only take you so far.

I got a taxi from Brentwood station that cost me about £8.25 to Warley Place.  There was a volunteer tent asking for a suggested donation of £3 per person. Luckily, I scrabbled around in my purse and found the requisite amount.  

You can do a circular walk which is apparently about a mile (or a km?)

I'll share some pictures

In the rockeries and along a woodland path, there is a lot of Wild Garlic.  I was delighted to see it!

I loved this view with the different greens. You can see the woodland daffodils (not the field ones)

Here are the woodland daffodils.  So beautiful.

I spied some Turkey Fantail fungus. Not the most colourful ones I've seen but very soft and pretty.

Some beautiful Lungwort. I love the spotty leaves, the beautiful hues and the spiky sepals.

Some lingering Hellebores. i wish I had these ones in my garden. My Hellebores are more dull.

The old conservatory.

Delighted to be accompanied by this beautiful Robin.  Made me think of my Grandmother Mamgu as they lived not so far from this place.

Luscious green.

I learnt that this flower is called Scilla.

Not sure what this purple delight is but it is pretty. The leaves a gorgeous too!

Forget-Me-Nots.

Look at all that garlicky goodness!!!

The primroses remain....I think....or are they Primulas??

 Spring is the very best of seasons!

xx

Southend Pier

Two weekends ago, my sister and her boyfriend came to stay.  We decided to head to Southend-on-Sea for the afternoon and take a trip on the pier train!

Southend pier is the largest pleasure pier in the world and extends 1.34 miles into the Thames estuary.

The Victorian era was a great time for the rise of the seaside holiday so many visitors to the coast, so relatively near to London created a demand for infastructure.

It first opened to the public in 1889 (in its current form) and the pier train opened in the early 1890's.  It was the first pier train in the country.

The pier train has played an important part of Southend's history.

In both World wars, it played a part. In WW1, ships which container German PoW's were moored on the end of it. In WW2, it was commandeered by the Navy and was closed to the public. After that time, it received many visitors from the late 40's onwards. In the 70's, there was some structural issues and there was a threat of closer, only stopped by protests. Grants were awarded and the pier was renovated with a new pier train in the 1980's.

It costs a minimum of £1 to walk on the pier. If you want the train, a one way ticket is £5.70 per adult. If you're feeling lazy or infirm, you can get a return ticket for £6.20.

We decided to take the train there and then walk back.

As we left, my musical era was delighted by the regular ostinato (repeated pattern) rhythm the train made.  The train moves fairly slowly so you can take photos as you go. I enjoyed looking at the underside of the pier at this height.

Here's the only shot I took inside. It was quite busy!

The train is a jolly green colour. Does it seem like it's smiling to you?

When you reach the other end of the pier, you can see some of the older trains including the royal carriage (the red one)

 I enjoyed the BR sign!

The seagulls were enjoying something edible on the railway line!

You can see Adventure Island behind.

It was a glorious day and this was a great activity for a sunny winter day.

At the end of the pier, there are quite a few facilities including Jamie's Italian. There are various kiosks which were all shut but I imagine, in the Summer, they house souvenirs and ice-creams.

Above, is a view from the end of the pier.

There is an RNLI centre and launchpoint at the end of the pier.  We saw one of the RNLI boats coming back in and got to watch it being winched back in.

Behind the lifeboat station, there is a great point to sit and look out to see with a large bell. Sadly, we couldn't really get to the end as there was a large amount of Twitchers/Birders who were all patiently there with vast cameras and binoculars as a Winter White Diver (or something like that) had been spotted there 2 days prior.

Lifeboat spam detailed below.

We noticed this great postbox cosy on the skinny little postbox!

Alas, we couldn't stay too long as we had to get some lunch before driving into London for a show (me and sister- Frozen. Boyfriend an CBC- De Peche mode.

I loved these three birds enjoying the halcyon day!

I recommend a visit to the pier.  It's easy to get to from Liverpool Street via the C2C or the Abellio Greater Anglia line.

I recommend a visit to Utopia cafe if you don't fancy the pier fare. It's a really quirky independent business. And if you want Fish and Chips, you are spoilt for choice!

x

Leon Lewis foraging walk

The week of my birthday,  decided I would really like to do a foraging walk with Vegetarian chef, Leon Lewis.  I met him around 4 years ago at a village show where he was selling his wonderful cuisine which included some foraged ingredients.  We then came back across him in Lockdown when we had to go to the town where he lives and operates.  He sold Vegetarian readymeals from his Garage sale. We bought some from him in March 2021 and he was the wonderful person who told me where to find Wild Garlic in Essex.

We met him at his house and we all piled into his car to reach our first location.

He taught us about some common Spring greens that we needed to avoid as they can be confused with edibles. Things like Lords and Ladies and Dog Mercury.

We looked out for some fungus and saw some King Alfred's cakes. Can you see the little face?  These are not edible but can be cut into slices and used for Fire Lighters/Starters.

We spied some Wood Ears which are used in Chinese Cuisine.  These were a bit dried up now but we did pick a bit of them as they can be rehydrated

We  also spied some Bird Polypore. Not edible but good to know! This one looked like  bun from underneath!

Leon introduced us to a great Spring green called Hairy Bittercress.  He set us the task of looking for some and picking it.  It is useful for a Spring salad.  We managed to grab quite a few chunks.  Don't ever take too much when you forage. Always make sure you leave enough behind. Remember, animals share these resources and other people and they need to grow back.

It was lovely to see some blossom as we walked.

We found a patch of Wild Garlic a little off the main path. Although it was quite early for Wild Garlic and it isn't as dense as it will be,there was a surprisingly large amount.  We gathered lots and it didn't look like we had taken any!

Next, we headed to a new location to go and seek some 3-cornered leek.  This patch were more oniony than leeky.  You have to look for the distinctive triangular stem down the bottom.

We also looked for Violets- tiny little purple flowers which are edible with a distinct floral taste.

We moved on to another area and found some wild Sorrel.  This was just growing in the grass and has a lovely lemony taste.

We also found and looked for some Cow Parsley which, in its young stage, as you might expect, makes a great wild parsley.

We also looked for some Common Hogsweed as when it is early Spring, when the new shoots are coming through, they can be picked. They look a furry white/green shade and are unfurled.

We also picked a large amount of Nettle tops and Goose grass.

We headed back to Leon's Garage where he had prepared some wonderful veggie dishes for us to eat. But before we did that, we were going to prepare some of our finds. 

As it wasn't a huge Mushroom time, Leon got some Chanterelles and Morrels out of the freezer for us.

Using Leon's Deep fat fryer, he supervised us deepfrying the nettletops for around 12 seconds.  These then turned into something delicious that tasted like Crispy seaweed. It was SO delicious!

He had mixed up some tempura batter for us with gram flour so we then deepfried the Hogsweed shoots in the batter.

Again, these tasted delicious.

He set me the task of deep frying the Chanterelle mushrooms in the tempura batter whilst he was frying.

You might just be aware that I LOATHE eating regular mushrooms.

Leon had said to me once that other types of fungus taste differently.  Thus, I decided I would try the mushrooms he cooked.

To the utter amazement of my family, I absolutely adored the tempura Chanterelles and ate lots of them!

 Leon also cooked the Morrels in cream and brandy with red onions.  I liked the taste of the mushrooms but wasn't so keen on the brandy flavour.

CBC was set the task of adding the sorrel, hairy bittercress, some wild garlic and the violets to a Greek Salad Leon had made.  This was delicious and had excellent olives as well as wonderful Vegan Feta (nicer than regular feta) and some Vegan sushi rolls Leon had made. It looked so pretty.

Here were the Woodears mushrooms rehydrating.

Leon opened some excellent wine (for him and CBC) and some homemade Apple Juice for me.

And now it was time to eat all the veggie goodness.

He had made a wonderful loaf of bread.  Then there was a delicious Caponata with olives, tomatoes. 

A great Tabbouli salad, Siny'et Bedingal (Egyptian marinated aubergines).  Mushroom pate, a Wild-garlic pate, a great Apple crumble, the Greek Salad and then the fried goods.

It was all delicious.

We were allowed to take all the left overs we foraged and we had some of the dishes. Leon also sold us some of his ready meals half-price (absolute bargains).

We came back with various curries, pickles, a Cucumber Raitha and all manner of goodies which kept us stocked for a week.

Leon is knowledgeable, friendly, generous and great fun. Both CBC and I were really buoyed by our wonderful time with him. What you find will vary at different times of the year and yes, I do want to go again as I am now keen to try Chicken of the Woods fungus!

It cost us £30 per head to do the foraging course, with food and wine which was incredibly good value. I am not sure if prices change at different times of the year.

If you go to Glastonbury, you might have spotted his stall as he is there and he has cooked for Fairport convention on quite a few locations.

Have you ever been on a foraging course?  Ever eaten something and enjoyed it which you didn't expect?

xx
 

P.S.Check out the Mushroom comments on my Insta!

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