Needing a new hobby to make up for woeful lack of burleque dancing and modelling during this Covid-19 madness, I took up foraging. Cardiff is thankfully blessed with a large number of green spaces, and Bute Park – the closest to me – has a large and part-wild arboretum section, perfect for finding interesting and edible plants. Finding elders was a big priority from the get-go, as they have many options to make them attractive for novice foragers (the flowers, berries, and even the fungus that sometimes grows on them all being edible). It took me a while to find them at first, until I cottoned on to the fact that they tend to grow in the shelter of other trees and shrubs rather than by themselves, after which I started finding them all over the place. Since I had some local interest expressed in where I was finding them, I decided to make a quick video on the subject. I don’t know if foraging vids will become a regular thing for me, though I do know I shall be sticking with this new hobby probably for a long time, as getting closer to nature – even if still in the midst of a city centre – has done a lot more to keep me sane during this very strange few months than the media or the internet has.
