High web

Without the morning dew I doubt if I'd have noticed this web in an acer tree. The branches here were well above my head. But the dew gave it some form against the misty sky, so here it is.

There must have been a few sceptics that those red peas yesterday were not photoshopped in to the pod, so convinced were some of you that they were chipolata sausages or Austrian processed cheeses. In fact they were yew berries. Had I turned them around you'd have noticed the distinctive inverted cone of the berry.

To the second question: are they edible? Well, not recommended, but the fleshy part around the seed - the aril - is not toxic, while just about everything else on the yew - the leaves, the seed, the woody bits, are, the toxin being taxane. The blackbirds have been feasting on the berries these past two or three days. I was very careful to keep the berries from foodstuffs when preparing that pod. I'd wanted fresh pea pods but the season for them is over and all I could get were sugar snap peas. I think that's it for the weird fruit and veg, at least for a while.

I got out briefly this morning to get this shot but I'm still far from 100 per cent. Have a deadline now though, so must get on.

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