…where my blossom’d pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge…
From Home Thoughts From Abroad / Browning
Took a break from gardening the other day when a strange sight on the road caught my eye. A woman leading what I thought was a donkey, but was in fact a mule. The young woman was called Zoe and the mule Falco. I wasn’t the only person to being drawn by this eye catching sight. A big man in a land cruiser hauling a horse box pulled up while we were talking to offer them a place to stay that night.
I walked with them awhile and discovered that the pair were doing the return leg of a fundraiser for a campaign called ‘Walk for Earth’ to support a proposed international law to protect the Earth from ecocide (“killing the environment”) If passed, this law would protect ecosystems anywhere in the world from large scale damage or destruction. It would be a steer for business, industry and government funding away from what destroys the living world, and towards what restores and protects it. More about it here: https://walkforearth.co.uk
The pair had walked from Oxford to Loch Lomond and were now on the return leg of their journey, a combined distance of some 1,000 miles. I made a very modest contribution and am pleased to see at the time of writing that Zoe has exceeded her target of £12,800. I think the distinctive and inspiring duo must have made a lot of friends on the way. Two primary schools for instance had hosted them for a talk and hand loom weavers were working on a tapestry.
Fruit blossom time is upon us at last. First the free standing damson (above) by the kitchen garden, then the oh-so-pretty pear in a tub out front and finally the cordoned James Grieve apple on the sheltered south wall of the house.
I continue to make small changes to the ponds I love so much. Have purloined some wild watercress from a neighbour’s spring where it grows in profusion. Not that we’d ever eat it – the danger of ingesting liver fluke or other nasties is too great – but it will, when confined to a pot parked in the margins, make for great cover in the new pond.
The frogs who call the old pond home always amuse me. One day, I caught four full grown ones all of a cuddle in a dark cave like pocket under an edge stone. They quickly dive back into the water when the stone is lifted and they’re exposed, and who can blame them.
Our brilliant builder is back to do a last little job, the one that gives all of us the greatest pleasure…re-roofing the old playhouse AKA ‘The Playhouse Café’. We’ve recycled the old Coraline (tar coated) sheets that were on the garage/workshop roof. They should extend the working life of an institution much loved by all the youngest visitors to the Corner House down the years.
STEPHEN TOMLIN 