[Coelacanth]

Went to Arnside Knott earlier today, amongst other things to look for sloes to make tasty gin-based delights.
After getting what we felt was a responsible quantity of sloes, collecting small numbers from a wide area, we decided to collect enough blackberries to make one mixed jar, see how it tasted.
Job done, we went and sat down to enjoy the surroundings, whereupon I noticed a juvenile tick on my arm. Then another. Then another. Then one on my leg, and another, so I looked carefully at my partner's trouser leg, only to see the material peppered with them. I've never seen so many, they don't bother me usually but this number was a little bit off-putting.
We're going to have to treat the hound with a suitable anti-flea brand I think, he's likely to have his own complement and at that size we'll struggle to find them until they fatten up.
So, if you're out and about in likely areas, tuck those trousers into the socks (but please, no gaiters, they look silly), don't wear shorts, and check yourself over afterwards (or as in our case, have some fun checking each other out!).

[Fergus]

Yes, ticks are a bit of an occupational hazard for the naturalist. You need to check everywhere – I mean everywhere – twice. Mirrors are useful.

Good luck with the sloes. My internal seasonal clock says it's a bit early for them but then, seasons are all over the place these days.

[Coelacanth]

They felt fine, they gave when squeezed and had a cracking bloom on them. I've made some fine brews with sloes picked in early September, but I'll let you know at some point next year whether these have worked.
There are plenty enough up there to justify another visit after the frosts, but work means I might not be able to until it's too late.

[rob snowhite]

what i've inferrd form berry picking -or at least we used to do before our town was built up-is that the ticks wait on the berries for a deer to come by and they hop on

wear light colored clothes, tuck in shirt to waist, and if can't tuck pants into boots, put rubber bands on the cuffs.

do y'all have Lyme disease as an issue with ticks?
one of my wife's co workers and one of my dc united friends both got Lyme disease while hiking the Appalachian trail. Recks havoc on the nervous system.

[ghibtasaurus]

dont think its v. common here, but i know we have to warn kids about it cos of the rats when we go pond dipping. i had great fun explaining about ticks when we went on a school trip to Arran - i was used to them cos i grew up in scotland, but theyd never heard of them, thought i was joking - until the second day, when they all had to borrow my tweezers[:D]

[ratty]

It's been a poor year here in Wales for sloes, I think it may have been that late frost in the spring catching the blossom. Luckily I had a few left in the freezer from last year, so made a couple of litres of gin last week. The crab trees are laden so we'll be ok for jelly.

[Gary]

Hi,

I love sloe gin. A friend told me I should use vodka. It makes a different taste altogether. Have any of you tried this method?

As for ticks. They can lose their heads when pulled from the skin cos they anchor so tightly with their jaws. On the rare occasions that I have had them, I used a Q-tip dipped in nail varnish remover. They soon let go then.....

As one of my risks for the risk assessment form while working in countryside management near water was Wiel's Disease. Probably that's why kids have to be warned about rats when pond dipping. Another was dog poop while working in public areas (risk of Toxocariasis).

I live on the South Coast, UK. We have loads of sea kale. I know this can be eaten (I have Richard Mabeys book), but I have been told they are protected. Not only that, but they are in the dog walkers path and just the right height for cocked dogs legs...

Regards,

Gary

[ratty]

I was told that if you twist a tick anti clockwise, it will come out cleanly. Was I being made fun of? I've always just pulled them off

[Gary]

It says that the tick should never be twisted or squeezed. It also says that you should never remove them by freezing them or putting any liquid on them as this could cause them to regurgitate their intestinal fluids, maybe causing infection.

Yuck!..

[url=http://www.tickpreventionweek.org/remove/]http://www.tickpreventionweek.org/remove/[/url]

On a lighter note, still on the thread of foraging hazards. Whilst touring Australia, I was chatting with Charlie, an Aboriginal who was trying to teach me how to play the didgeridoo (not that he was a bad teacher, he was brilliant, just that I was a lousy student), he told me a story of a white feller, a black feller and his nuts.

A couple of hundred years ago, a black feller (Charlie's words, not mine) was eating some nuts. A white feller asked him what he was eating. I'm eating some nuts, he said. The white feller asked if he could try some. Sure, was the reply and the black feller gave him some nuts. The white feller ate them and said they were really nice and where did he get them from? The Aboriginal said: "From that tree over there". The white chap duly went over, picked some and ate them. Three days later the white chap was dead. What the Aboriginal failed to tell him was that the nuts had to be put in the river for three weeks and then buried under ground for two weeks before the poison left them.

My question to Charlie was: "How did they know how to do that?" Charlies reply was: "We just know".

I'm sure he told me what the nuts were called, but I can't remember.

We had a fairly long chat with regards to the uses of some of the plants out there, namely the Grass Tree (formerly known as Blackboy Tree but not politically correct to call it that anymore).

Regards,

Gary

[JimEyeDen]

Dunno, but they probably had a lot of fatalities up until that point.