Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,
Whether summer clothe the general earth
With greeness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch
Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet Moon.



Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Country Walk

This morning the weather was mild but we had heavy driving rain and I thought the afternoon's planned walk with Judy and her dog Martha would have to be postponed. However just as I was about to phone Judy and call it off a patch of blue appeared and the rain stopped so I decided to chance it, making sure to put my proper hiking boots and a light waterproof jacket in the car. Martha is Bilbo Baggins' lady friend and is pictured above with him. Judy lives in the country and she and her husband are currently restoring a 1750s cottage while living in a caravan in the attached paddock. There are lots of nice walks around where she lives and above are Martha and Bilbo Baggins enjoying themselves along the way.
The skies were filled with heavy threatening looking clouds all the way round but we were out for a couple of hours and the sun was out the whole time. We set off down the lane then up through the woods eventually coming out on a path leading across a recently harvested field. The field had also recently been liberally spread with muck and there was what my mum always called ' a good,healthy country smell' very much in evidence! The dogs obviously agreed with my mum and thought it was truly wonderful. After crosssing a lane we came to the fields which supplied the wide open view and lovely cloud formations above. Across another lane and then the path went through a large field of still unharvested barley - it seems very late for it still to be uncut, it was certainly more than ripe but rather stunted due to the lack of rain during the summer. Maybe it isn't high enough for the machinery to harvest properly or maybe I just don't know that much about farming!

I was going to upload a couple more photos but Blogger won't let me so I'll try again tomorrow. All the hawthorn trees are heavily laden with berries and I took a picture of one really lovely one along with another one of bunches of the wonderful transluscent red berries of the woody nightshade, a deceptively innocent sounding name - the berries are not only beautiful but also poisonous. We finally got back home to be greeted by Blondie, Gloria and Road Runner who are Judy's three very tame and no longer very productive hens , she's planning to get more in the spring I think along with a couple of sheep - apparently I am to take spinning lessons so she can give me the fleeces when they are sheared!!! Hmmm, yes, well......

7 comments:

Tea said...

Bilbo Baggins and his lady friend look like they`re having a great time!
When I was over your way 8 years ago I remember noticing that the clouds look much lower in the sky and your thunder was louder. I wonder if it has something to do with the altitude.
Your friend is so lucky.....to be renovating a cottage from the 1700`s. Wow. That would be my dream.
I`m crazy about old cottages inside and out. Maybe she would let you take a picture sometime.
Spinning would be kindo of fun I think. Well maybe just make one nice shawl blanket or something :)


tea
xo

Tea said...

Are your pictures a big size? Whenever I forget to make them smaller they take forever to upload if they upload at all.
Just a thought....

tea
xo

Daisy Lupin said...

Hi Rowan,
Your name is one of my two favourite trees, the other being Silver Birch, an elegant lady. Thank you for commenting on my blog. I have just been reading yours and see you are new to blogging. If you are having difficulty with photos I suggest you download firefox onto your computer, it deals really well with blogger and you can run it side by side with your normal server. Look forward to meeting you again. Bilbo Baggins looks like a lovely dog, though I have to admit to a cat preference myself.

Daisy Lupin said...

PS Meant to say glad to meet another Little Grey Rabbit fan, I have a lovely little china figure of her on my kitchen dresser. Peter Rabbit and friends are always raved about, but I think a lot of people forget about Little Grey Rabbit and her store of country lore. She is one of my heroines.

Janet said...

Sounds as everyone had an enjoyable walk. I agree with Tea about the cottage....what a fantastic renovation job that must be.

rel said...

Rowan.
Oh my, what a lovely post.
Your friend renovating a 1750's cottage is making me envious. I do love the countryside and ancient history.
As Daisy says; Load Mozzillz/firefox to your computer. It's a browser same as Internet explorer, but Mozilla is not at war with blogger. When you want to post to blogger with some photos just use MF instead of IE.

Thanks for sharing. and thanks for your visit and reading about my adventures.
rel

Patty said...

Bilbo Baggins lady friend could be a twin to my Fergus MacSnow. I will have to post an updated photo of him on my blog so you can see.