Have you ever noticed all the berries in the autumn?

Most of us recognise the sight of a blackberry bush. In fact, taking a tub out and picking blackberries from bushes in the countryside is a regular sight around here, and reminds me that autumn has arrived.

 

There are lots of berries I remember my mum telling me as a child that I couldn’t eat as they were ‘just for the birds’ and I always wondered what they were and why the birds were allowed them but not me. How unfair!

 

They were always red berries and there just seemed to be so many of them everywhere – some are toxic and some we can eat. But recognising them is the tricky bit.

 

As a fellow nature lover you might be interested to know too -  here are just a few of them:

 

Pyracantha is an evergreen shrub that usually has plentiful orange-red berries and needle-like thorns. Although the berries have not been shown to be toxic to animals or humans, you may well get a stomach upset if you were to swallow many of them.

 

These are the berries that I see most often and are the berries that I used as inspiration for my berry collection.

 

Hawthorn Berries. These are probably the most common berry that you see. Smaller than a pea and are rich in vitamin b and c and can be turned into jams.

 

 

Rose Hips are another Berry we often see, famous for their spherical shape with a lightly plastic feel to them. You see rose hip being used in lots of health remedies.

 

 

Another toxic berry are those on the Honeysuckle. They cluster at the end of the stems and are quite sticky.

 

Did you realise there were so many berries?

As with all the nature I come across, berries have really inspired me to craft something beautiful to remind me how wonderful and creative nature is. Here are some of my berry inspired pieces from my collection: