Yesterday morning, while roast turkey aromas whafted down the neighbourhood, John and I triked to Banchory on almost deserted roads. Our target: Scolty Hill! We choose a different hill every year and always take plenty of Christmas cake with us. It was awesome at the top and our eyes got drunk on the vistas that stretched out below us:
Even in the depth of winter, there is food around for us. Apart from emergency tummy fillers like lichen (some sources say you could survive on them if there’s really nothing else), the Velvet Shanks are now in full swing! I picked some on Christmas Eve and again today:
They tend to grow on (dead or dying) gorse, which lines our Aberdeenshire lanes prolifically. Nobody else seems to pick them, as you need to be both a forager (to know where they are) and a cyclist (to be able to spot them and stop), and the chance of belonging to both these categories is small. That said, I will knock on wood in the hope that “my” spots will be preserved for another lunch on Wednesday!
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, whichever way you chose to spend it. We’re now preparing for a long weekend away in the Cairngorms to see in the new year – watch this space for photos and stories 😁
The healthy forager 
You had once asked in one of the blog posts to your students, what was their self-actualisation. I answer to that now, this would be my self-actualisation, wherein I could walk around like this and find out my food from nature whenever I feel like it. I could enjoy nature and merge with it without thinking about anything else or anybody! Such a feeling I would say is freedom….. pure freedom!!!
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