So I queued up with all those good people paying their fines, and almost got my debit card refused - well, cheques are definitely not acceptable these days, and I didn't have that much cash on me.
Anyway, the point is that I scarcely needed a coat on, and the air felt mild and hopeful. A robin was singing his heart out in the top of a scruffy little tree; perhaps it was the same one I saw visiting our feeder this morning, at the same time as the blackbird coming for his bath, the sparrow picking up spilt seed, and the blue tit already searching for greenfly on the roses.
The sort of day you might get in late February. Catkins dancing in the developer-planted shelter belt - and I noticed that one resident has chopped off the tops of the trees that are growing just behind his garden (I wonder if he realises the effect of pollarding trees? Bet he doesn't).
(Picture added 9 p.m.)I've spent much of the morning on an emergency wool-dyeing exercise (mitten crisis in Cambridgeshire), but once I've had a bite of lunch, I'm off out. Non-working, that's me.
5 comments:
Go Girl!
I'm trying to empathise with the wool/mitten crisis, but it's difficult when the weather's warm.
It's been warm in Manchester too, but horrible with it.
What happens when you pollard trees Stitch?
(A dyeing excercise sounds a bit drastic)
Cutting off the trunk of a tree, at any height,(pollarding) encourages growth, and where there was one trunk before, there are lots and lots afterwards. Practised since pre-history to harvest branches for wood and leaves, and to promote more growth. Trees that have been pollarded can live for many centuries. But I'm sure you know all that.
Oliver Rackham is a good writer about trees.
Wake up at the back there! There'll be an exam later!
Oh! Now I know what's going to happen in Bury St Edmunds churchyard (the trees were so severely pollarded last year they looked most bizarre). I think I'd better go and investigate soon!
ruby - I remember your picture. Not pretty when they've just been cut, but when the new shoots and leaves come out, they'll look fine.
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