First Walk of 2011! Beware asparagus geek-out

A perfect walking day

Bright and early-ish, before we could change our minds, we set off for our first walk of 2011. It was about a five-mile circular route around Sutton Valence and Ulcombe which we walked previously nearly two years ago! We thought it would be a good idea to do one we knew we liked since we've been out of the habit of walking any real distance. My post from our first time is here. It was a beautiful, crisp and sunny morning, completely clear, which I don't think we've seen since before Christmas.

Now here's something interesting we found out: The photo of the purple asparagus from our original walk... Well, that was taken in April and I remember how excited we were (yes, really) to see how asparagus grows. This time, we were equally excited to see what is left of an asparagus crop once the harvesting is done!

Here to the left is the image I took in April 2009 of that lovely purple asparagus ready for harvest.




And below is that very same field today. See all of those stringy, weedy, stalky plants? THAT'S THE ASPARAGUS!

I heartily apologise if this is the most boring thing you can imagine, but I found it quite an eye-opener, especially when I saw that the stalks of these woody plants look just like the spear of asparagus (a good reason for that, after all)!

Am I crazy? Look at this lovely little berry we found on an asparagus bush! Who knew?

Ahhh... asparagus berries...

What are they picking you say?

Why, purple asparagus of course!!

Today was proof that our weekly walks out in the countryside are well worth it. I haven't posted much since my initial mention of buying a book and hiking boots, but we've really become addicted to the stuff. My Facebook status reflects the day:

"Chased off by a hormonal horse, walked through a field of purple asparagus, gazed upon medieval paintings in an unlocked church... marvelled at the giant ancient yew trees in Ulcombe, climbed on the ruins of a medieval castle, and had a half pint overlooking the hills of Sutton Valence."

Must get used to using the camera more, even if just to take quick snaps.