Today has not been an exciting day to write about. I've been doing a bit of work with one of my clients, and would heartily recommend the Water, Mills and Marshes LPS website as a place to linger to learn about the Norfolk Broads, the mills there and the work being done to restore land and buildings, and to educate people. I was there in early March, just before the first lockdown hit, and it is a hauntingly beautiful area.
Less cheery was the news that the staff at the Francois Rabelais Hospital in Chinon have been affected by Covid quite badly.
Yesterday however, after a visit to the Boys in the Country, I took the long way home and visited the One Acre Wood for a walk and contemplation. The previous Sunday we had both visited and had worked hard to fill the trailer with firewood. The weather had been perfect - sunny and a hint of warmth. Yesterday the conditions were less good, and I was on my own, but there were still interesting things to marvel at, including self-seeded cyclamen plants, and the ever changing light and views as more leaves fall.
The service trees do not make good firewood (although we gather they aren't bad for charcoal), and often just collapse and fall for no obvious reason. We tend to leave the trunks to rot down or provide food for whatever passes through the wood. I found evidence of something having a good rummage in one of the logs.
Further round, I found a new mushroom had come up - it is a bit late, as many of the others that were around earlier in the year have rotted away or are looking like something from a horror movie. I don't know why but pied de mouton (hedgehog mushrooms in English) seem to fruit very late in our woodland, and this is a rather nice example. They are edible I gather, but I'm never entirely sure about them, and none of the hunters or scrumpers that come through the wood take them, so I leave them as an interesting curiosity and further evidence of the excellent biodiversity there.
In the words of the song, it beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as holly berries are everywhere and haven't been eaten yet by the birds. In another week or so I might be inclined to cut a few sprigs and make a wreath, or I might just leave them to be enjoyed by nature. I'll see how I feel. I won't have them in the house, as the berries might be food for mice, and might be poisonous for cats.
With three cats living in the house, you would think I wouldn't be too worried about mice, but Zola brings them in and then forgets about them. A couple have been living hidden in a crack between kitchen units and only coming out when we aren't moving, to eat their way through a packet of polenta. Once we realised what was going on, we kept the packet in place, and caught one, and took it away outside. Its chum finished the packet on Sunday morning. On Sunday evening, it was looking for something else and making a noise, and for once Zola followed up, laid in wait for about 10 minutes and caught it. And ate it - as the only evidence I found was a tail and a bit of "inner mouse".
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