I’m a Country Boy at Heart
Sep. 3rd, 2003 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whotheheckamiFor those of you who hadn’t noticed I’m a country boy at heart and the following will prove my point.
I managed to get some time to myself over lunchtime and went for a long walk down the green lane near to our offices in Corby. I went further than I’ve ever gone along the lane and broke out onto an area of heath-land. Well, it’s heath-land now, but 30 or so years ago it was part of the British Steel open cast iron ore mining area. The holes were filled in when the mining stopped and some landscaping was carried out. For years the land was touted as a site for a theme park – first for Euro-Disney and then for Wonder-World. Neither project came to fruition and Nature has been given a chance to weave her spell.
In later summer the place is adrift with the seeds of fireweed and the bright colours of the cornucopia of berries that are hanging from the bushes. Grasses and shrubs grow so close and tall that walking anywhere but the few paths is a chore and impossible in office clothes. Signs of game are everywhere – I’ve spotted rabbit, badger, mole, deer, and fox as well as a plethora of ground-nesting birds. I walked for about a mile and could have carried on for hours – I wish I had.
The signs of man are there, but they are few and fighting a losing battle to Nature. Signs and wire rust away posts and poles provide food for insects and hedges are now copses. I left feeling energised for the afternoon and with the hope that I would be able to get back there tomorrow.
Note to Self: Take lots of bags or baskets to collect some of the crops of blackberries and sloes that are so heavy that they are threatening to shatter branches. Would anyone be interested in Blackberry Jam, Blackberry and Apple Pie or Sloe Gin?
I managed to get some time to myself over lunchtime and went for a long walk down the green lane near to our offices in Corby. I went further than I’ve ever gone along the lane and broke out onto an area of heath-land. Well, it’s heath-land now, but 30 or so years ago it was part of the British Steel open cast iron ore mining area. The holes were filled in when the mining stopped and some landscaping was carried out. For years the land was touted as a site for a theme park – first for Euro-Disney and then for Wonder-World. Neither project came to fruition and Nature has been given a chance to weave her spell.
In later summer the place is adrift with the seeds of fireweed and the bright colours of the cornucopia of berries that are hanging from the bushes. Grasses and shrubs grow so close and tall that walking anywhere but the few paths is a chore and impossible in office clothes. Signs of game are everywhere – I’ve spotted rabbit, badger, mole, deer, and fox as well as a plethora of ground-nesting birds. I walked for about a mile and could have carried on for hours – I wish I had.
The signs of man are there, but they are few and fighting a losing battle to Nature. Signs and wire rust away posts and poles provide food for insects and hedges are now copses. I left feeling energised for the afternoon and with the hope that I would be able to get back there tomorrow.
Note to Self: Take lots of bags or baskets to collect some of the crops of blackberries and sloes that are so heavy that they are threatening to shatter branches. Would anyone be interested in Blackberry Jam, Blackberry and Apple Pie or Sloe Gin?
