It's blackberry season.

[johnalison]

For starlings at any rate. At least my boat wasn't quite as bad as these on our pontoon this week.

 

[Clancy Moped]

I take it a good dump of rain won't sort that?

 

[johnalison]

I take it a good dump of rain won't sort that?

I think it will eventually but I'm a bit miffified having washed the boat down only a few days before. I have just noticed that ariel doesn't dot the Is after Fs.

 

[Poignard]

We have been a'blackberrying and Mrs P. has made se veral jars of delicious jam.

So that's a few less blackberries to be dumped on people's boats.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Could be elderberries - they stain MUCH worse than blackberries!

 

[Clancy Moped]

We had a Mulberry tree in France and white tiles on the floor, not a good mix.

 

[johnalison]

Could be elderberries - they stain MUCH worse than blackberries!

Thanks. I'll give them a lick next time I'm down to check.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Thanks. I'll give them a lick next time I'm down to check.

Actually, I'd forgotten where you are! Blackberries are probably much more likely. But they happen to be a perennial nuisance where I live...

 

[Denek]

We were in Burnham last year for a few days and were bombed with starling poo laced with blackberries and although I tried to clean it off within half an hour it still left stains. Took ages to get rid. Our boat is coming out this week as we are off to Cyprus fir 6 weeks so it makes me realize I must get the winter cover on before we go. Have not noticed the problem around SYH where we are though.

 

[Tomahawk]

Thanks to the RSPB campaigning for the objects of their hobby to have protected legal status, we are not allowed to shoot the ** things. I wouldn’t mind if they agreed to pay for cleaning up the mess. It does seem very one sided. I am sure if it were the other way round, say me doing work on my boat left a mess all over their car, they would be demanding I pay for the cleanup.

** please insert your personal choice of invective which is not allowed under forum rules.

 

[Mudman]

It happens every year, and the purple staining fades away very quickly. If you don’t want to experience everything which lives in our wonderful world then stay indoors with the windows shut. Killing everything which annoys you is a pretty pointless and short-sighted (not to mention selfish) philosophy which is doomed to failure.

 

[Bigplumbs]

It happens every year, and the purple staining fades away very quickly. If you don’t want to experience everything which lives in our wonderful world then stay indoors with the windows shut. Killing everything which annoys you is a pretty pointless and short-sighted (not to mention selfish) philosophy which is doomed to failure.

Chill out a little

 

[Zing]

Is it just me or are the blackberries particularly good and abundant this year?

 

[Tomahawk]

It happens every year, and the purple staining fades away very quickly. If you don’t want to experience everything which lives in our wonderful world then stay indoors with the windows shut. Killing everything which annoys you is a pretty pointless and short-sighted (not to mention selfish) philosophy which is doomed to failure.

Now you come to mention it, I don't want to experience a lot of things in our wonderful world. I don’t want to experience a cockroach infestation. I don’t want to experience rats chewing through my pipework like the last time. I don’t want mice shitting all over my food. I don’t want flies spreading germs into my food. I don’t want to experience the results of a swarm of locusts eating the harvest. Nor do I want to experience covid, or ebola or typoid or malaria or tape worm or lice or mites... Actually if you are prepared to be honest about it, there is an awful lot of the wonders of biodiversity that is plane nasty and really bad for us if not simply leathal. So when you talk about the wonders of the world, you are not talking about actual biodiversity. You are looking through rose tinted glass at hobbyversity where all the nasties have been removed for your benefit.

 

[WoodyP]

Nature red in tooth and claw, and in this case poo.

 

[jordanbasset]

My wife and I went blackberrying a week or so ago, she made some lovely Jam and a Blackberry tart from our haul, delicious

 

[Tomahawk]

Nature red in tooth and claw, and in this case poo.

Absolutely .... which is why we have exterminated all large carnovirs from our land least they eat our food. We now have conservationists seeking to rewild the country by reintroducing wolves and possibly bears. My objection to the idea is that they don’t take responsibility for their hobby. They expect the taxpayer to compensate farmers when the object of their hobby eats the farmers living. I would respect them if they said we will fund all compensation costs. I suspect farmers would be far less concerned with TB from badgers if the Badger Trust simply paid for every cattle that is infected and has to be destroyed.

 

[Tomahawk]

My wife and I went blackberrying a week or so ago, she made some lovely Jam and a Blackberry tart from our haul, delicious

I am sure it was good. But I suspect you didn’t deficate blue poo on your beighbours car afterwards

 

[Bigplumbs]

Absolutely .... which is why we have exterminated all large carnovirs from our land least they eat our food. We now have conservationists seeking to rewild the country by reintroducing wolves and possibly bears. My objection to the idea is that they don’t take responsibility for their hobby. They expect the taxpayer to compensate farmers when the object of their hobby eats the farmers living. I would respect them if they said we will fund all compensation costs. I suspect farmers would be far less concerned with TB from badgers if the Badger Trust simply paid for every cattle that is infected and has to be destroyed.

Very true

 

[jordanbasset]

My wife and I went blackberrying a week or so ago, she made some lovely Jam and a Blackberry tart from our haul, delicious

I am sure it was good. But I suspect you didn’t deficate blue poo on your beighbours car afterwards

Not sure the relevance of this to my post or what you are suggesting to deal with the issue. I suppose you could kill off all the blackberry bushes or the birds that eat them, personally I would prefer to live with the inconvenience than do either of those things