Hedge laying and, ash before oak

Actually had a comment yesterday asking me what has happened to the cut. For the last thirty years or so the cut has been surrounded by tall trees (mostly hawthorn) and as the spring has gone on the cut turned from a sunlit valley into a dark and mysterious tunnel But earlier this year it was laid. That means they cut down the tall trees and cut the branches half way through and bend them down and twist them into the hedge. That way the bottom stays thick and becomes a real barrier. Some people like it some don't.

I hope to find out more soon but as a blog is published backwards (latest posting first) you will have read anything already that I will ever write about it. So I don't know whether this should be an apology or an item of self congratulation. Anyway here is a picture of the laid hedge with the sun behind it. The top picture is the cut looking down. And you can see that the hedge of tall trees on either side has been cut down. Under that is a picture of the laid hedge. As you can see some of the branches they laid are pretty big because the cut had been left for so long.

Here is a link to a hedge laying site http://www.hedgelaying.org.uk/faq.htm#1 .

Oak before Ash

Oak before Ash/ In for a splash

Ash before Oak / In for a soak

This is an old weather rhyme that my mother used to quote.
She said that she had never seen the ash come into leaf before the oak and I don't think I have either and that is why we always had wet weather in England. This year however it almost looks as if it might. So it's bad news for our reservoirs and means hosepipe bans maybe, or maybe not. At the top of the cut there is a smallish ash tree and two huge oaks. Here's a picture looking up into them. Oak at the top, ash at the bottom. If you look closely you can see the buds on both of them.

Before I came to live here I never realised that most trees have flowers. But they do. And on the ash and the oak they are the first thing that appear. Here are some pics. Oak before ash in the order of the pictures.













When Ahok asked me a question I started wondering whether to ignore it or answer it and a quote came to mind from e.e. cummings "thou answerest them only with spring". The poem turned out to be very appropriate for a footpath in spring.

(But before we get there I wonder what ee cummings reason for using no capitals in his poem was Archie of Archie and Mehitabel fame had a good one. Archie was a cockroach who wrote by jumping on the keys of a typewriter from the roller and he could only jump on one key at a time. So he couldn't hold down the shift key. e e Cummins just thought there was a better way to use capitals than to mark the beginning of sentences and put them where he pleased. Also it got his poems noticed I guess.

Anyway here is the poem
:

O sweet spontaneous

earth how often have

the

doting


fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

beauty .how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
(but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

thou answerest


them only with


spring)

More soon Nick