Wonderland

These short dull days feel strange at the best of times but in this third lock-down, I think they are more sober and disconcerting than usual and it is taking quite some effort to be focused and positive. 

On my walk today I came across this twisted iron fence and was reminded how as a teenager living in Northamptonshire, I was fascinated by the signs of agricultural history I discovered in the fields near our home.  As I walked I found tumbled down barns and farmyards, decaying machinery -  in one barn there was a huge wooden threshing machine,  gates and fences long lost to the undergrowth, horseshoes in the fields and empty stables.  Even in the hedgerows you could see how long ago the practice of hedge-laying had been abandoned in favour of cutting back the growth with a machine. It all seemed a wonderland compared to the more built up environment of Hertfordshire we'd moved from and later inspired me to read books such those by Oliver Rackham on the history of the countryside.