Yesterday at the Sheepdog Trials, naturally the daft dog came too. He's good as gold and will just sit by my side watching the goings on with interest but has been trained not to chase sheep, despite being from working collie stock. He still got his exercise though, two young fans of his for the past few years, took him out on one of the fields and threw balls for him. He likes the two lads, as do I and they are interested in all sorts of things, including wanting to make their own sticks, so asked me to show them what to look for.
Now the lanes in this area are narrow and high, barely room for two vehicles to pass. In this photo >>>
the briar roses and elder trees grow up really high and there is also a good range of other trees too, holly, hazel, beech, ash and oak. Plenty of choice for potential sticks.
As it so happened ....
I had been up this stretch of lane already and had spotted a few likely candidates for a quick pruning and so it was we returned with a briar thumb-stick for the younger lad and a nice holly for the other, both promise me that by next year they will have done the necessary to turn them into properly made sticks, sanded down, treated etc. We shall see.
When I had explored earlier, as ever I had my constant companions with me, the dog and the camera and in just a short stretch of road there was a lot to be seen, looking closely.
Much of the old stone walls are barely visible due to years of growth. There is an abundance of mosses, ivy and in some areas of the lane where the hedges have been pruned the holly is thick and heavily scented at the moment with masses of honeysuckle
<<< the first I have seen this year and such a lovely sight to see. But also growing in this hedgerow a rare sight for me ...
Climbing and entwining >>>
through the holly and honeysuckle a Field rose, not the normal delicate pink Dog Roses that I am so used to seeing and in this instance, not so delicately scented as the others. But with a background of the evergreen holly and nestled in with the sweet scented honeysuckle it was just a lovely moment to catch on camera. Another area of stone wall was bare apart from the remains of ivy stems ...
It just goes to show how tenacious this plant is, reaching out to make the most of every opportunity to explore all in it's surroundings. Often just started off with a seed that has passed through a birds digestive system, it becomes an invasive plant, often climbing high through trees or as in this case spreading horizontally along an old stone wall. Even when killed off, the stems remain and in years to come as these "tentacles" slowly disintegrate, the wall will have been made weaker and eventually collapse unless someone with stonewalling knowledge can rebuild these long established boundaries. Sadly stone walling is a dying art, but one I will return to in a later blog.
As I was taking photo's of this ivy invaded wall, a familiar song started behind me and as I turned, this normally shy bird, the wren, seemed to be fascinated by what we were doing and paced back and forth along the gate top, not even scared off by the inquisitive dog in fact it almost seemed to be telling Ffin off either that or asking questions as to who we were!
But then another sight caught my eye ... the first rowan berries that I've seen this year. Immature and not yet bright red, it is still a reminder that although "summer" has officially just started, the harvest of autumnal fruits is not far way around the season's corner. The black berries are already starting to bloom and all too soon the autumnal larder will be getting stocked up. But, let us not wish the days away and hope for good, sunshine filled, dry days for shearing and hay making.
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