(no subject)
May. 14th, 2006 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essayelThere's something about being up REALLY early at this time of year. Thanks to the dog, of course, who wanted to help the cat play with the mouse he had brought in. A very tiny mouse actually, smaller than my thumb.
To compensate the pooch for not being allowed to eat it, I took him for quite a long walk - or he took me - and we enjoyed making friends with a large lonely horse, gazing lovingly at sheep and spotting bunnies. I'm not sure whether he had previously made the aquaintance of bunnies but it was clear he would love to know them better.
Up on the top lane I started thinking, as one does, about the hedge. It is said that a new species of plant establishes itself in a hedgerow every thirty years so I counted over a paced off section and noticed:
Hawthorne
Elder
Ash
Oak
Field Maple
Hazel
Blackthorn
Holly
Something that looked like crab apple
Nettle - stinging
Nettle - yellow
Ground elder
Ivy
Campion
Cow Parsely
Trefoil
Herb Robert
and a few others I'd need to look up
This takes us back an easy 500 years, which might seem to be stretching it a bit except that that lane shows clearly on some of our oldest maps and nothing endures like a public right of way. The lane contours around above the town at just the right height to avoid the windy tops and the boggy bottoms, a route that heads for Hereford in one direction and west into Wales in the other and, personally, I reckon 500 years is the least of it.
The dog wasn't in the least interested in the hedge other than in getting wound up in it but on the way back we saw a little owl and a green woodpecker and more rabbits and startled someone's cat very much indeed. So it was quite a successful walk from both of our points of view.
To compensate the pooch for not being allowed to eat it, I took him for quite a long walk - or he took me - and we enjoyed making friends with a large lonely horse, gazing lovingly at sheep and spotting bunnies. I'm not sure whether he had previously made the aquaintance of bunnies but it was clear he would love to know them better.
Up on the top lane I started thinking, as one does, about the hedge. It is said that a new species of plant establishes itself in a hedgerow every thirty years so I counted over a paced off section and noticed:
Hawthorne
Elder
Ash
Oak
Field Maple
Hazel
Blackthorn
Holly
Something that looked like crab apple
Nettle - stinging
Nettle - yellow
Ground elder
Ivy
Campion
Cow Parsely
Trefoil
Herb Robert
and a few others I'd need to look up
This takes us back an easy 500 years, which might seem to be stretching it a bit except that that lane shows clearly on some of our oldest maps and nothing endures like a public right of way. The lane contours around above the town at just the right height to avoid the windy tops and the boggy bottoms, a route that heads for Hereford in one direction and west into Wales in the other and, personally, I reckon 500 years is the least of it.
The dog wasn't in the least interested in the hedge other than in getting wound up in it but on the way back we saw a little owl and a green woodpecker and more rabbits and startled someone's cat very much indeed. So it was quite a successful walk from both of our points of view.