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To Granny’s Bench! [blimey] came the shout on a slow, smouldering Sunday afternoon as @AnnaJCowen and I tried to forget about the freezer full of pizza and went out foraging for food instead.

Stick two fingers up to THE MAN ‘n all that, with a hyperlocal approach to satisfying the nutrient needs of our bellies. We got bored before we reached Papa’s Chip Shop, and rather predictably ended up with double large chips and saveloys all round.

Only joking.

Our North Essex estuary arrival during the fag end of the Indian Summer last year was just slightly too late in the season to benefit from all the rural delights that scavenging for berries can bring. It wasn’t that the blackberries, sloes and rosehips had all over-ripened, simply that some other buggers had got there before us.

Share and share alike, Comrades, but we weren’t going to make the same mistake some twelve months on. With the blackberries still bruising in a multi-layered colour of green, red and um, black, it is certainly a hit and miss time for any hyperlocal penny pinching produce pincher.

Taking the roughly the same route that we rather fortunately stumbled upon last summer, our Sunday afternoon stroll took us past the Sailing Club, along the water and up towards Granny’s Bench, and then back along the old gravel track and down past Ballast Quay House.

We almost didn’t get past the Sailing Club during the late summer of 2010 - the abundance of hedgerows and bushes by the water satisfied our scavenging needs. Not so this year with the sea wall vandalism of the Environment Agency leading to an absence of anything growing up along the banks.

The Wivenhoe Vegetable Garden is now starting to serve us well, but after a plate of Courgette Surprise - the surprise being that there is nothing else but corgettes - you need something slightly sweeter to set you up for the evening.

Have blackberry tupperware, will travel…

We deviated left of the river and along the stepping stones heading up towards Granny’s Bench, finding pockets of blackberry bushes, not yet quite blushing or blessed with the fruitful zing that one requires to start salivating.

Still - best get them now before the other buggers do.

We encountered some sloes en route and made a mental note to return in a few weeks to repeat the sloe gin experiment. The rosehips weren’t quite ready - and neither is my palette to be honest. The syrup of last year has left a nasty taste in the mouth, not to mention a few medical complications elsewhere.

A new addition for this year was the discovery of both elderberries and a steady supply of crab apples. It was around this point in the afternoon of picking that the conversation turned slightly fruity after I suggested a fruit fight with the girl.

I was alarmed to hear “look at these little tiddlers” and “prick” in the same conversation. I got slightly bored to be honest, and floated the idea of returning with the secateurs, hacking off the hedgerows and then picking off the blackberries at our leisure back at base whilst watching Eastenders.

You can take the boy out of South London, blah blah blah…

With bloodied blackberry stained fingers being displayed as a badge of honour, we walked along the Alresford Road and weaved our way down to Ballast Quay.

And so what next?

To quite the GREAT Lorraine Bowen, everybody’s good at cooking something, and I’m good at cooking crumble. Well, I can prick the blackberries and let the girl do the rest. It will be served up a treat with a pound of cheapo imported value ice cream, delivered especially via the online food order as Mr Supermarket burns up the food miles and makes his way through the back streets of Wivenhoe.

Ah - the Good Life.

Plus: don’t forget the plug for the most excellent Country Diary, via George Mac and Radio Wivenhoe.

Full flickr feed over here.

Image copyright: Richard Allen.

There’s been a bit of a birding break around these North Essex estuary parts of late.

Pfft. Part-timers (the birds, not the charming birders.)

But yep, just as the leaves start to turn on the wisteria, the muddy banks of the Colne lose their seasonal cake layered crust, and the cat stops taking a crap outside (cripes) - it’s a sure sign that these golden days of summer are slowly, slowly coming towards a close.

Which all must mean that Richard Allen, Wivenhoe’s bird watcher extraordinaire, is polishing up his bi-focals and preparing for a winter of weekends wading around and making notes all about the migrants that are about to come our way.

The Daily Mail would descend into a fit of unwanted moral outrage if it got a whiff of any of this.

A few notes from Richard’s most recent walk:

“A lovely sunny morning with a brisk breeze. There were not too many waders to be seen, most having departed for their northern nesting grounds, but we did manage to find a Curlew two Redshanks and a few Oystercatchers and Lapwings. Lots of Shelduck were feeding out on the mud along with Black-headed Gulls, and a couple of Cormorants vied for the best wing drying perch.

The wind made viewing small birds tricky, but we did obtain good views of Linnets, and heard a variety of warblers singing from cover. In the shelter of the wood we found a group of recently fledged young Chiffchaffs, Great Tits and Long-tailed Tits foraging together. Kestrels were actively hunting, obviously with young to feed somewhere, likewise a Marsh Harrier.

More unexpected was a large dark bird of prey circling over the wood, it had me totally confused until it banked in flight to reveal a gleaming white rump patch and chestnut wings, a Harris Hawk. This is an American species commonly used in falconry and quite a frequent escapee.

Perhaps the best bird however was a rather inconspicuous grey brown bird singing its jangly song from a bramble bush, a Corn Bunting, a good summer record for the area.

Recent sightings: Two broods of Shelduck appeared from their burrow nest sites, one of twelve the other four. From late July wader number have increased and there are now lots of Godwits and Redshank, a few Greenshank and Avocets, and a scattering of Curlew and Whimbrel. Common Terns now have squeaky young following them, and it’s a good time of year to spot an Osprey passing through.

If that has whetted your appetite for wading around Wivenhoe and beyond, then Richard is running a series of guided birding walks on the following dates:

10th September, 8th November, 12th November and 10th December. All walks start at 10am outside the Sailing Club, £8 per person. Booking is required.

Meanwhile, a spectacular find of late has been George Mac’s Wivenhoe Country Diary on Radio Wivenhoe. The premise is simply to walk around the rolling fields and estuary openings, and to record all the green and good that comes the way of George.

It works on every level for what I want from a hyperlocal broadcast - genuinely local knowledge about areas and observations of which I know little, all delivered in a style that suggests that you are actually out walking with George.

There is even a listen again feature for the fledgling station, allowing for the possibility to perhaps download Country Diary, put it on your iPod, and then walk with George for real.

Woh.

In true Partridge style - possible idea for a programme: George Mac walks around with Richard Allen on a birding tour, and records the feathery friends they encounter along the way. If it is an overcast day then you could always play paper, rock, scissors.

Nope, that wouldn’t work on the radio.

I’m off to a BP Garage for a mushroom slice.