There, Around The Bend

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Autumn awaits around the bend, preparing the sky for long rains. We will not ask her for permission, we will walk through the wilting fields. Rowan bunches discharge the greenery of mighty firs, pines and oaks. Rolls of hay, spicy hoppy air and blue skies over rooftops

The road to the cottage

Each summer resident has his own landscape outside the windows of the car on the way to the dacha. But there is something in common that unites them. This is the delightful beauty of nature and the swiftness of its transformations.

The black thawed patches on the snow-covered roadside are still fresh in my memory; the first yellowness of the flowers of the mother-and-stepmother, looking at which an experienced gardener will immediately say that the soil here is wet, clayey, alkaline … and it’s time to pick up baskets woven from flexible willow rods and set off inland from the road to collect representatives of the mushroom kingdom.

Minutes run swiftly, winding like a dirt road to the dacha, rolled over the years. It seems that you already know every bump and eternal puddle that even the July heat cannot overcome, but, no, no, and the road will suddenly surprise you with an unprepossessing blade of grass, which, upon closer examination, turns out to be a future pine tree, and a person you meet by chance will become the most dear and desirable a guest in the house. Life and the road are unpredictable, this is where their charm, eternal novelty and infinity lies.

Bright rowan brushes

This year, the Red Rowan was especially successful. Its scarlet clusters adorned the city streets; a bright, elegant beauty seems to tease dark green spruces, dressed in strict prim clothes and towering over a laughing neighbor at the edge of the forest; even the old mountain ash in my garden, which was almost overpowered by mushrooms spreading along the trunk, shows an abundance of bright orange berries.

According to popular beliefs, a bountiful harvest of bitter and bright rowan fruits announces to people about a particularly harsh and fierce coming winter. It seems that the militant politicians managed to persuade the freedom-loving weather, to play along with their anti-popular ambitions.

But the residents of "Asienda" cannot be intimidated by frosts and sanctions. It is only necessary to more carefully cover the heat-loving plants for the winter and create comfortable conditions for storing the harvested crop. Dry rowan leaves, which have bactericidal properties, can help preserve vegetables. To do this, you can dry them right with the twigs and transfer the vegetables sent to the bins with such a "medicine".

By the way, the harvested and dried rowan berries will help fight the autumn-winter hardships, replenishing the body with vitamins, protecting against pathogenic microbes and annoying viruses. So, rowan not only warns, but also gives a remedy to fight adversity.

Mushroom kingdom

Periodic rains and summer heat, cooperating, prepared many surprises for mushroom lovers. To find them, we arm ourselves with wicker baskets; with sharp knives, fixed to the basket with light chains or a strong and reliable rope, so that you do not have to strain your memory later, under which next bush the knife was dropped; we throw a light hiking backpack with simple food over our shoulders to replenish the strength necessary to overcome the forest debris, and go to the cherished forest, inhaling the healing aroma of the city's lungs.

We strictly adhere to the unwritten rules of a true mushroom picker:

* Do not disturb the pantry lands in vain, pulling out the fruiting mushroom body, usually called "mushroom", together with the "offal", that is, with a part of the mycelium, which will still be useful for the next mushroom harvests, but carefully cut off the cap with part of the leg. In most mushrooms, as a rule, only one cap is cut off, since the stem does not differ in nutritional value.

* Do not put mushrooms that are unfamiliar to us in the basket. You can put them in a separate container so that when you return home, you can consult with more experienced mushroom pickers.

* Do not kick poisonous mushrooms. They are not good for your stomach, but the forest needs them. Admire their beauty and move on, following your luck.

Summary

Minutes sadness will dispel the thought that is everlasting death, which is not real in summer, nature also needs to rest in order to continue the path of Eternal life in the spring!