Cooling

Escaping the heat into the relative cool of Rice Wood at Helpston, one of John Clare's favourite haunts. The contrast between the parched fields and brilliant light of the surrounding arable land, and the cool green shade was immense. The land surrounding the wood looked positively Mediterranean (see extra) and the only sound in the fields was the distant cronking of a Raven.

Inside the wood, there was a hum of insects, Speckled Wood butterflies  and the contact calls of family groups of tits foraging among the tree tops. Most of the trees didn't look stressed, helped by the humus-rich soil which has not been ploughed for centuries (if ever) and retains water better than soils of cropped land. The Field Maples appeared to be particularly indifferent to the drought, possibly because if is native across large tracts of Europe and Asia where such conditions are commonplace.