Summertime

 And the living is easy?

It is the end of July.  Last night it rained here, a satisfying drench for the parched land, though far from enough.  Today is cloudy, and there may be more water to fall, though it is impossible to second guess the vagaries of this summer.

We haven't had real rain for weeks - possibly months, I haven't been counting.  It could be worse, perhaps.  Not everything is dead:

And this Chiffchaff found some caterpillars to feed to its young:

But this baby Stonechat is going to find its youth cut out with endless searching for grubs:

In the hedgerows there are already signs of autumn.  Hazel nuts begin to ripen:

Crab apples are showing colour on their skins:

The blackberries that have not already shrivelled to nothing are ready to pick:

And sloes are almost ready for the gin:

I shouldn't anthropomorphise but this Sedge Warbler has a worried look....  It knows things aren't right:

And this Yellowhammer pleads for at least a little bit of bread (with no cheese) from a dead twig:

While these Sparrows risk sleepless nights by shredding the unripe elderberries:

It may be all right for Goldfinches - they like thistle down!

But even that may be in short supply after the recent fires:

Which were mercifully controlled by the local brigades (without air support):

But which have exposed the mindless littering of those who come in their droves here to 'enjoy nature!'

It is a wasteland:

Beautiful walks destroyed in the drop of a spark:

Yes, life will go on, perhaps.  This young Robin may grow up to have young of its own:

This Turtle Dove may return next summer to a green and pleasant land:

The plague of Ladybirds, which reminds me of 1976, may not reappear for another 45 years.... perhaps?

The declining populations of butterflies may somehow turn a corner, though, judging by my very recent visit to Holt Country Park, where trees are withering, their leaves crisp and falling, everything is parched to probable death:

African skies are now commonplace:

And high above me a seagull listlessly chases a Buzzard in circles (two dots in the bottom centre), neither of them bothering to scavenge as there is precious little life to eat:

Though they both missed this mole, unable to bury itself in the rock hard ground where no worms survive:

At home our cats wilt in the heat, wasting water needlessly:

And Amanda sleeps uncomfortably on, fortunately unaware of the state we have brought ourselves to:

In my beginning is my end. In succession

Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,

Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place

Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.

Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,

Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth

Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,

Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.

T S Eliot

East Coker

Buon Ferragosto!

 A Short Walk on Ferragosto.....

It doesn't seem like mid-August.  Ferragosto.  The 15th August.  Feriae Augusti, initiated by the Emperor Augustus (when he was merely Octavian) to give workers a break, then adopted by the Pope to combine with the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.  

When I went to live in Rome, in August '76, it was blindingly hot, and around Ferragosto almost everything was closed - shops had their blinds down for weeks, the whole city seemed to be asleep.

I spoke to a friend in Calabria last night.  It was very very hot, but she was planning a family picnic under the trees today.  I remember summer days in Italy, a little lunch then a sleep in the shade.  August was a quiet month.  In fact, many summers I travelled north to escape the mid-summer heat, and later, the fires and the Canadairs, the acrid air......

So today, in the comparative cool of Norfolk, under grey skies, with a hint of drizzle just speckling my camera, I take Amanda for a walk.  And, to my amazement, we find ourselves in early Autumn - far from the glare of summer......

Sloes are darkening; crab apples are swelling in the hedgerows.  There is even a mushroom arising out of a rotten log.....

Beech mast is dropping from the trees, falling and opening.....

Hazelnuts await the squirrels:

Sweet chestnuts are forming on their twigs:

And Blackberries are getting ready for the pie:

Thistle down is whisping in the breeze:

The seeds of Rosebay Willowherb are all set to take off:

And the sticky buds of Burdock are almost past their best:

While the bright berries of the Rowan are ripe and ready to pick to make jelly with the crab-apples:

It's all very well, but only the other day it was Spring, and then yesterday was Summer.  Who knows where the time goes?  

Life is upside down.  A second year begins to fray and decline; a second lost year, with few meetings, little travel, enclosure and isolation.  

Forgive me this, but, "Hare today....

Gone tomorrow....."

Across the evening sky,

all the birds are leaving,

But how can they know,

it's time for them to go?

Before the winter fire,

I will still be dreaming,

I have no thought of time.

For who knows,

where the time goes?

Who knows,

where the time goes?

Sandy Denny

Who Knows Where the Time Goes

1967

https://youtu.be/jsqztvHIB9Y

Buon Ferragosto my friends.....

Make the most of today, for who knows...?

[All photographs taken on the Wild Ken Hill estate, Snettisham, Norfolk, between 08.30 and 10.30 on August 15th, 2021, with my Pentax K-3, mounted with a Pentax - DA 1:2.8 35mm Macro lens (limited)].