Winter Sun

Onwards

Beech and Holly

east hill strips at dusk

Midsummer's Morn

I like to share the odd song on here, usually tree related if I can find one ( I'll give Tie A Yellow Ribbon a miss for now if you don't mind) so I present Oak and Ash and Thorn, written by Rudyard Kipling. Yes I know about the criticisms of Kipling; that he was an Imperialist cheerleader, a freemason etc. but he plays a part in our inherited culture whether we like it or not, and these poems  are neatly tucked away in his books for us to happily ignore if we choose to but some of them are pretty good. This one is from Puck Of Pook's Hill, written for children as an introduction to British history. I showed a copy to my Mother, who remembered reading it as a schoolchild herself.

Of course the next difficult subject is English folk music, and I have to admit I came to it fairly late, possibly because it gets such a bad press in this country, with it's visions of morris dancing and tankards of ale, though it's actually a broadish church, encompassing both the left and the right of politics and with most of it written and originally sung by working class people. I grew up listening to plenty of folk music; largely Irish, Breton, French and to a degree Scottish, but remained generally ignorant of my own musical traditions. I still wonder about how old a song has to be before it becomes "traditional".

Oak and Ash and Thorn is sung here by Peter Bellamy with Royston Wood and Heather Wood, known collectively as The Young Tradition, though this was on a solo album in 1970. He said of the song; "Kipling entitled this poem A Tree Song, and it is to be found in the story Weland's Sword. Both the tale and the song set the mood and pattern for all the stories and poems which follow. The tune is intended to recall those of some of the old wassail and ritual songs."

Bellamy had a distinctive singing style. In a cartoon of 1980, he was given the anagrammatical name "Elmer P Bleaty", a humorous comment on the nasal vibrato of his voice. In fitting music to many of Kipling's poems Bellamy would try and figure out which tunes Kipling might have had in mind when writing, and does a very good job of matching old tunes or tunes he wrote himself to the works. Like a lot of folk songs it's much easier to sing along with after a few beers. I'll put the words underneath for you to enjoy.





Of all the trees that grow so fair,
Old Engerland to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun,
Than Oak and Ash and Thorn.
Sing Oak and Ash and Thorn, good Sirs
(All of a Midsummer's morn)!
Surely we sing of no little thing,
In Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Oak of the Clay lived many a day,
Or ever Aeneas began;
Ash of the Loam was a lady at home,
When Brut was an outlaw man;
Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town
(From which was London born);
Witness hereby the ancientry
Of Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Yew that is old in churchyard mould,
He breedeth a mighty bow;
Alder for shoes do wise men choose,
And beech for cups also.
But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled,
Your shoes are clean outworn,
Back ye must speed for all that ye need,
To Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Ellum she hateth mankind, and waiteth
Till every gust be laid,
To drop a limb on the head of him
That anyway trusts her shade:
But whether a lad be sober or sad,
Or mellow with ale from the horn,
He'll take no wrong when he lieth along
'Neath Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
Or he would call it a sin;
But—we have been out in the woods all night,
A-conjuring Summer in!
And we bring you news by word of mouth—
Good news for cattle and corn—
Now is the Sun come up from the South,
With Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Sing Oak and Ash and Thorn, good Sirs
(All of a Midsummer's morn)!
England shall bide till Judgement Tide,
By Oak and Ash and Thorn!

autumn colours

Woods at Broadhembury

A day spent putting succulents to bed for the winter and then the following afternoon I finally find my way into Jeremy's woods, which turns out to be a lovely little wildwood. Long wellington boots are essential in here due to the large amount of water which underlies pretty much everything. Even with these on the wood still needs negotiating with care, so as not to end up getting very wet.

This is a small, friendly seeming wood, tucked away up many lanes near Broadhembury. I get the sensation that people do not enter into these woods very often. I leave huge galumphing footprints in the deep moss behind me which I hope will spring back after I leave. It is almost like walking on a floating green river of plants and moss. Nothing is certain here; what appears to be solid ground quite often isn't. Trees cannot be relied upon to bear weight if you lean against them. Apparently solid branches are actually soft and can just collapse with the slightest touch. Trees fall over and then they regrow themselves from the disintegrating horizontal trunks.

the rags of time

Plenty of rain has fallen recently so lots of growth here at the moment producing the tallest bluebells seen for a good few years. Gales heve blown through and battered the flowers but it is good to see so much rain at this time of year as it is right for spring. These pictures were taken at the end of April so the flowers still had a way to go before being fully in bloom. These were taken on Salcombe Hill which is a good steep climb out of Sidmouth and generally not that popular as a walk as you have to go straight up the Salcombe Road and then hang a left, it is very steep climb so not so good for fag smokers and layabouts but popular with the car drivers.

I got slightly lost in these woods a while back and at a particular point couldn't work out why so much rubbish was turning up, some of it very old, some of it very new, when all of a sudden in a crescendo of debris I came over a bank onto the Salcombe Road. For years, as people drive between Sidmouth and Salcombe, they come to this nice hidden wooded part and they throw all the junk out the back of their vans and cars into the woods. Considering this road doesn't really go anywhere very important (Salcombe telephone box is one of the least used in the UK) it is quite a busy little road and everybody seems very much in a hurry to be somewhere else.

I have been reading at the World Press Network Forum lately which has some good links to articles for news and comment on the global financial situation http://worldpressnetwork.net/forum/index.php?sid=0e6d8d981ab9bd4319e0d3323a90cbd0
the Silver Bear Cafe has some interesting articles too;http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/home.html

winter light

Yettington

These were taken on a hill near Yettington in East Devon. It was early evening and the air was very still. The first thing that I noticed was that there was hardly any birdsound, it was almost totally silent. As we carried on walking we heard the odd rook and a few other birds and then I remembered that a lot of the birds had probably already flown south for the winter.

Horses and Cows

These are from a few weeks ago and have a bit of animal life in them for a change.