midsummer

  • Nature Notes

    Deep Summer The ground hardens like lime mortar and holds the flints fast at whatever angle they were last tumbled into. Some stick up like ancient weapons, stropped edges like axe heads, freshly knapped by the clink of horses hoofs, but never our boots or tractor tyres. It is the time for the slicing of […]

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  • Nature Notes

    Signifying Nothing: The Boy, the Fox and Macbeth. Pic by kind permission, Janet Taylor. A few weeks ago, with the hawthorn in full, flowering waterfalls, my youngest daughter and I sat out to watch six, six-week-old fox cubs playing in the old badger sett they were living in. The dog fox and vixen were off […]

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  • Nature Notes

    Midsummer Nocturne In recent weeks, I have found myself going out just before dark, after the children have gone to bed. I can’t go far – just as long as the spooled out ties-that-bind allow, my ears alert to any sounds from the house. The evenings are scented with honeysuckle and I creep about, pausing […]

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