Hedgerow harvest and stubble spores

Sandy, Bedfordshire The toadstools' undersides showed delicate beauty, black-threaded gills striking against white caps

Summer ended months too soon for the north-facing hedge beyond Old Warden church. Bramble bushes were laden with berries, plentiful, shiny, and resolutely green, as if the calendar were still set at July. A few desultory wasps and flies drifted along, seeking juice from this unharvestable harvest.

Elder trees hung out unprepossessing bunches; half the berries were green, the other half were stuck on the ends of stalks, shrivelled and as black as peppercorns. The sun-kissed south-facing side of the hedge, nourished by warming rays at dawn, presented a contrast of abundance. Full and swollen hawthorn, rose, elder and blackberries all tempted the hedgerow jam maker.