Sophie and I went off for a walk tonight and we did the "round" which we haven't done for a good while. The changes in the countryside were quite remarkable which made the walk all the more interesting. I must admit that I was the one who noticed things as Sophie walked along with her iPod plugged in! I've been thinking about making elderberry wine lately as the bushes around here are groaning with elderberries, but I noticed that a lot of the bushes had been picked clean by the birds (I assumed it was them, unless someone else has the same thoughts as me!). We also saw a clump of wild mushrooms/toadstools but I didn't know whether they were edible or poisonous and I wasn't going to pick them to find out!
The huge wheat field we walk around has been harvested and ploughed already and the soil looked like the crumbly biscuit base of a cheesecake, which made us fantasise about desserts and chocolate, in particular! We also noticed that the farmer was out cutting the hedgerows and he'd taken off half an oak tree which I thought was unneccesary! Poor thing!
On the long slog uphill, we came across a dead bird that had been eaten but the head was still intact and its poor little eyes stared up at us in shock...I thought Sophie was going to cry. We also came across another baby oak that had survived the harvesting and somebody's train ticket from London to Kettering!
Nearer the village the pear trees were heavy with fruit with many lying on the ground. We were a bit nervous about taking them as two big houses overlook this field and I didn't want to get told off! Outside of one of the houses in the village was a basket full of pears and apples as obviously the crop was larger than the household could handle.
Half way through the village we spotted water gushing up from the ground, probably from a broken water pipe so Sophie had great fun paddling through the stream! I noticed a sign written in blue ink saying that the local water board were aware of the problem but the water was gushing out with a lot of force!
Down to the bridge and we saw that it had been mended after the brickwall had been hit by a car recently. We'd seen a man repairing it over the last few days and he'd made a really good job of it. It looked very neat and tidy with just the wooden fence to repair. Who pays for it, I wonder?!
We were almost home when Sophie decided to go and see the chickens that roam free in a smallholding along the main road. They all clucked when they saw her and she was a bit worried to see that one of them was bullying another, by pecking away at the poor bird's beak. It's a fact of life, I told her, but at least they were free to flap about and peck at the ground, unlike some poor things that are caged up all their lives!
So that was our walk! It was a beautiful evening, the sun shone, the air grew warmer. Are we to have an Indian summer maybe?
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