Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Living life – and eating breakfast – in the rural fast lane
BACK at the end of May, I wrote about how I was struggling to dodge the swallows as they dipped and dived through the somewhat overgrown grass.
At that point, the forecast for the contractors to come in and take an all-important first cut of silage looked bleak, with heavy rain showing no signs of abating.
But now I am able to enjoy my walks again in relative dryness as the fields are just starting to shoot again after their ‘short back and sides’ a few weeks ago. I counted around 50 large round bales, which have been trailered away and will surely help to fed a lot of hungry bovine mouths during the winter months.
Nobody rents the fields for grazing, but there’s plenty of other stock around as the deer and rabbits appear very grateful for the opportunity to eat safely out in the open. Walking early one morning this week, I was caught out by a sudden shower of rain, the kind that while it didn’t appear to be heavy, would have you soaked in seconds.
Too far from home to make a run for it, I instead took shelter under a big-leaved sycamore tree. I must have been waiting a good five minutes for the worst of the downpour to pass, but rather than scrolling through social media, I used the time to admire the swallows once again. And I’m so glad that I did, as they never fail to put on a show of dizzying aerial acrobatics.
Standing proud in the centre of the fields is a towering oak, perfectly positioned to survey the surrounding valley – and act as a turning point for the swallows. I watched in awe as they skimmed the surface of the upper field, before rising and racing towards the oak. A crash, surely? No chance. A lightning fast loop around the trunk and off they’d go again, enjoying breakfast on the wing.