Although there were plenty of wild flowers and nice scenery, the stress of having to leap to safety every so often made it impossible to enjoy the stroll.
Then, a few
years ago a new bypass was built, and one day in the summer we decided to see
what had become of the lane, now that the new road had cut off the end. The
difference was apparent straight away. Not a car in sight and we were able to
stroll down the middle of the lane in complete safety. Little holes in the
hedgerow undergrowth showed us that other creatures were enjoying the lack of
traffic. I’d brought my new camera with me and spent a happy couple of hours
poking round amongst the ancient hedgerow gathering inspiration for some new handcrafted
jewellery.
Skylarks
rose and twittered, insects hummed and Arthur Rackham style gnarly bushes and
trees lined the wayside. The sound of the bypass wasn’t that obvious until we
got to the end. Here they’d planted hundreds of trees on a high bank to shield
the road and made a footpath and cycleway. Burnet moths flew in abundance and brightly
coloured skipper butterflies fluttered amongst the various wild flowers. The
kestrel hovered overhead, and a pheasant sped over the adjacent farmland.
As we turned for home I wondered what the genius loci (protective spirit of the place) would make of it! Under an ancient oak tree I noticed some objects poking though the soil. Bending down and scraping the soil away I found shards of ancient pottery, bits of old pickle pot, a rim of plate with a boars head on it and a tiny head of a chicken. I picked up the little chicken’s head and put it in my pocket.
Somewhere out there the headless chicken stays buried. Maybe the genius loci
is happy with the new configuration after all!
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