Well this is the last day of the first month of 2013 and what a month it has been weather wise across the the whole of U.K. One thing we haven't experienced (unsurprisingly) is a heat wave but that said despite the snow and ice, it has been a relatively mild month compared to many January's past. The snowdrops here are really coming into bloom at the moment and <<< these in a shady corner of the garden really caught in the sunlight this morning. Galanthus nivalis ... I love them, their delicate, drooping, tear drop flowers are such a wonderful sign of spring. The highest price ever paid for a single snowdrop bulb was for a genetic mutation named Elizabeth Harrison (with yellow markings not green ) it sold for £725 last year. to a well known Ipswich based seed company. The year before in 2011 a Galanthus 'Green Tear' variant sold for £360. How does one name these variants? A nursery man from Cambridgeshire, sadly named one variant he created "Mr Grumpy." because the green markings on the snow white petals looked rather like a glum face. I could never see the delicate snowdrop as grumpy!
However after a wild, wind battering night, that kept the household awake. I was grumpy. All through the night the wind battered the house and blew things all over the lawns. The noise was horrendous and a sleepless night had by all. Late this afternoon ...?
More serene skies belying the bitter wind that blew harsh across the drenched fen landscape. There had been some signs of recent ploughing in the slightly higher fields ...
but in The Lode, a local man-made waterway connecting to the River Cam and ... thought to be Roman in origin the water was high. Lodes such as these were all once navigable.
But time and different needs for means of transport have made many of these once navigable waterways are now null and void for humans at least, though much wildlife now appreciates these normally serene wildlife "A roads" criss-crossing the fen landscape. Today ... wind rippled and with no signs of ducks, but visiting seagulls were enjoying it.
But at least for the bipedal dog walker the tracks that run along these large dykes help one to appreciate the fenland landscape with it's wide open spaces and continuous views.
Also as I discovered today, dogs are not the only quadrupeds to benefit from these tracks.
<<< And ... marching across the landscape are these pylons delivering the modern electricity that we so rely on today. This line runs at right angles to the Lode, but I can't help but wonder what the Romans and later on the Dutch who improved the Fen drainage system dramatically would have thought of this energy in the sky, that marches across the landscape in longer, straighter lines and carries power suck long distances at such speed. How things have changed, yet in some ways here in the Fens remain "almost" the same as when the Romans & Dutch tried to tame this water drenched landscape. I often wonder what they would make of The Fens of today ... still different but more modernised and yet in some ways I wonder if those of old would recognise the landscape, especially the vast acres of arable planting which are so very different now from agricultural past.
However after a wild, wind battering night, that kept the household awake. I was grumpy. All through the night the wind battered the house and blew things all over the lawns. The noise was horrendous and a sleepless night had by all. Late this afternoon ...?
but in The Lode, a local man-made waterway connecting to the River Cam and ... thought to be Roman in origin the water was high. Lodes such as these were all once navigable.
But at least for the bipedal dog walker the tracks that run along these large dykes help one to appreciate the fenland landscape with it's wide open spaces and continuous views.
Also as I discovered today, dogs are not the only quadrupeds to benefit from these tracks.
<<< And ... marching across the landscape are these pylons delivering the modern electricity that we so rely on today. This line runs at right angles to the Lode, but I can't help but wonder what the Romans and later on the Dutch who improved the Fen drainage system dramatically would have thought of this energy in the sky, that marches across the landscape in longer, straighter lines and carries power suck long distances at such speed. How things have changed, yet in some ways here in the Fens remain "almost" the same as when the Romans & Dutch tried to tame this water drenched landscape. I often wonder what they would make of The Fens of today ... still different but more modernised and yet in some ways I wonder if those of old would recognise the landscape, especially the vast acres of arable planting which are so very different now from agricultural past.
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