tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39195266108189159762024-03-13T22:29:43.635-07:00Rex Sly in the FensRex Slyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853110601147315299noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919526610818915976.post-8989761172963371002021-10-08T02:20:00.004-07:002021-10-09T10:42:21.602-07:00<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-77c4tKiKeUU/YWALbJGuD6I/AAAAAAAAAxA/_UBEqGZt-m4LG2D1nWiw6fMGKHRff16-wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/proof%2Bcopy%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-77c4tKiKeUU/YWALbJGuD6I/AAAAAAAAAxA/_UBEqGZt-m4LG2D1nWiw6fMGKHRff16-wCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/proof%2Bcopy%2B2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"> OPENING STANZAS from 96 poems</span><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">MY HOMELAND – THE FENS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">My fathers’ father worked this land, his father’s father too,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">we’re farmers, drainers, countrymen, and fenmen through and through,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">who’ve fought the Romans and the Danes, and Frenchmen many times,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">battled against the elements, quelled Crowland Abbey’s danger chimes*.</span><span style="color: #ff6600; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">We’ve mastered rain, controlled the floods, the tempest, storm and tides,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">we’ve conquered wind and cyclones, then snow and ice besides,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">hand-moulded this flat landscape into what it is today:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">a jewel in the farming world, where nature also has its say.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">FARMING MEMORIES<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><a><i>I was born in 1940 in the farmhouse where I live today. My early memories of the farm were </i></a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 12.266667366027832px;"><a class="msocomanchor" href="applewebdata://7EAB2040-6E72-45FF-8DDA-CC845B7EB20E#_msocom_1" id="_anchor_1" language="JavaScript" name="_msoanchor_1" style="color: #954f72;">[DAL1]</a> </span></span><i>when horses were still used extensively, with tractors and combines being introduced after WWII. Like many Fenland farms, we kept horses for carting potatoes from the field until machines replaced them in the mid-1960s. Farming changed dramatically in the 1970s; on joining the European Common Market mechanisation took over and reduced human labour.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I remember the days when animal sounds marked the breaking of dawn,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">cows and calves bellowed, a cock crow announcing the morn.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I remember the daybreak, the sight as it lit the flat fields,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">as the skylark sang out and the livestock demanded their meals.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SUNRISE FROM TURFPITS FARM<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>I was born into this fen world in1940, and have witnessed the sun rise and set from Turfpits Farm throughout my life. I have never tired of these quotidian natural phenomena and have greeted them as they have greeted me; with reverence, love and appreciation. It saddens me when the sun slips away at dusk but one of my greatest privileges is that, like the sun, I will one day slip below the Fenland landscape.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I watch the sun rising from below the earth,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a jewel released from our planet’s vast girth,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to awake the world from its slumbering night,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to warm the fen as it gains full height.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">SUNSET IN THE FENS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I never tire of our sunsets over the fens.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Unlike in a landscape of hills and mountains,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">light lingers as if it does not wish to leave us,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">until it finally disappears below the earth’s curvature.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">A time of day when life must ease its pace,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">when darkness fills that bright-lit space;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">the fading sun serenely makes retreat<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">when day’s sounds cease and night calls beat.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">DAWN ACROSS THE FENS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">There is a certain peace that hangs across the fens at dawn,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">half-light awakens nature, as well as souls withdrawn;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">before the rise the blackbird’s song has chimed today’s advent,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">to warn nocturnal friends and foes another night is spent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">MORNING WALK AROUND THE FARM<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>The morning is my favourite time, walking as early as possible before urban sounds begin, when I can enjoy silence, solitude, and watch part of nature rise whilst another part retreats.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Night’s conclusion, hoar frost glistens,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">darkness slumbers as morning stirs,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">sun rays stretch, the land’s revealed,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SUNRISE FROM TURFPITS FARM<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I watch the sun rising from below the earth,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a jewel released from our planet’s vast girth,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to awake the world from its slumbering night,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to warm the fen as it gains full height.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">DAWN ACROSS THE FENS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">There is a certain peace that hangs across the fens at dawn,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">half-light awakens nature, as well as souls withdrawn;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">before the rise the blackbird’s song has chimed today’s advent,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">to warn nocturnal friends and foes another night is spent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">COLOURED WATER IN THE RIVER WELLAND<i><o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>The world’s top-soils are depleting at an alarming rate, mainly due to water erosion. It takes thousands of years to produce a few inches of top-soil, which can be washed into rivers and deposited in the sea during one human lifetime. The main rivers passing through the Fens are, the Great Ouse, Nene, Welland, Glen, Steeping, and the Witham, all gather water from over four million acres, as well as receiving water pumped into them from the fens themselves, before depositing it into the Wash.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I stood on Crowland Bridge today<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">watching the water in dismay,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">a river swollen, running brown<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">with sediment from field and town;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">brooks flowing over, banks awash<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">and gathering soils – so someone’s loss –<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">but pipes and drains will do their job<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">and drain the land beneath the sod.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">LIVE WATERS<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>There is an old fen term “letting live water into the fens” that refers to water passing through catchment areas such as streams, brooks, lodes, and becks; all are water carriers that lie above the fens and transport water through the Fen-edge and into the fens themselves. The term ‘live water’ means flowing water, as opposed to much that is stagnant for a great part of the year.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Streams and brooks up off the fen<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">gathering waters from the hills,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">filling gullies, lodes and becks,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">LITTER FROM THE SKY<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>I often come across remnants of sky balloons and Chinese lanterns littering the fen countryside.<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I have a hatred for balloons and lanterns<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">that come dropping from the sky,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I do not know who sent them<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"> or the bloody reason why.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">AUTUMN SHADOWS 1<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Shadows, mellow in the fading sun;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">chill winds cool our Fenland soils,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">storm clouds scatter across the sky,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">days shorten as the months go by.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">AUTUMN SHADOWS II<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Shadows lengthen in the fading light,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">silhouettes blend serenely into night,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">poplar trees reach out across the field,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">extend their forms but soon will yield.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A FEEL OF AUTUMN IN THE AIR<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Summer evenings are now memories to us all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">they readied us for glories of the autumn fall,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">when filigrees of cobweb drape the trees like lace,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I feel the breath of winter’s sigh upon my face.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">DAWN ON THE MARSHES<i><o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>I have visited the marshes all my life, sometimes rambling with friends, sometimes alone to watch the geese or collect samphire for the kitchen table.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Twilight marks the close of night<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">unveiling marsh and creek,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">sea mists rise to heaven above –<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">it’s feeding time for bill and beak.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">FOOTPRINTS IN THE FEN<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Over a Fenland lifetime I have left my footprints on many bridleways and footpaths used by drainers, drovers, workers and ramblers; along dykes, drains and rivers.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On riverbank, by gates* and droves,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">washes, marsh and mere,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">by clough and cradge*, field and fen,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">humans wander without fear.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">URBAN SOUNDS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>I am fortunate to live in a remote part of the Fens but am conscious that urbanisation is eating into them. Almost all new developments are being built around towns and villages on Grade 1 agricultural land, a precious and diminishing commodity.<span style="color: red;"> </span>Sadly, the more affluent people become, the greater the increase in fly tipping across the countryside.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">More urban sounds are beating out<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">obscuring nature’s calls; and dwelling,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">creeping far across the plain,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">marching on with no restraint.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">SHRINE<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">This shrine stands on one of our family farms next to a millennium stone on the meridian line. It was erected by a local family in memory of their daughter who visited this spot, where she found peace of mind as she was nearing her death, aged twenty-four.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There are still places left on earth where peace of mind is found,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">where souls sit and rest alone, on their sacred ground,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">places to meditate and pray, to recall and access their life,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">for some it is their sanctuary, away from noise and earthly strife.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">THE BAKER<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">On visiting a local baker in Gedney Hill village early one morning whilst researching my book FENLAND FAMILIES.</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The baker stirs before the dawn,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">lights his fires as souls slumber on;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">taking salt and yeast and flour from bins,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he measures, kneads and shapes in tins.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE BEDFORDS<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>Sir John Russell, 1<sup>st</sup> Earl of Bedford (1486–1555), owned a considerable estate at Thorney in fen heartland, enlarged in Henry VIII’s reign with the dissolution of Thorney Abbey. In the seventeenth century the family oversaw widespread drainage of the fens by Dutch engineers, notably Sir Cornelius Vermuyden and Sir Philibert Vernatti, thus adding acreage to the estate. Death Duties and the Great Agricultural Depression forced the 11<sup>th</sup> Duke of Bedford to sell the estate in 1930, ending nearly four hundred years of the Russell/Bedford family</i> <i>ownership</i>.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The hand of Cromwell changed this land and abbeys were destroyed,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">priests, monks and deans and abbots joined the unemployed;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">this holy land that God and then the fenmen did create<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">would see a transformation into nobleman’s estate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">HOPKINS BRIDGE<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>Hopkins Bridge still spans the Middle Level Commissioners’ Drain. It was built in WW1 to span drains for the tanks to cross.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Hopkins was an engineer and building bridges was his passion,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as new-found railways round the world became the century’s fashion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">With iron and steel he built them, his design and thoughts were seeded,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and when call from king and country rang he knew they would be needed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">TOM<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><i>Tom worked for us in the 1940s and ’50s. He drifted onto the farm from London, after the Blitz, and stayed with us for several years until our family moved near to Spalding. With no one to cook for him he moved on.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When I was young and the war had past<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">men drifted away from the cities fast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Homes were gone and loved ones died,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">leaving only tears for those who survived.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">KEN<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>Materials for house building were scarce during post war years so many farmers bought old railway carriages, like Tom’s, and converted them into homes.</i><span style="color: #0070c0;"> </span><i>Ken was a local farmer’s son who lived near the POW camp at Whaplode Drove. His carriage is still there today.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This little railway carriage trundled right across the county<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">transporting souls, young and old, with luggage and their bounty.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Some were scrapped but some were kept, this one being sold,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and so it spent it’s latter years as someone’s prized abode.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">CROWLAND ABBEY<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Crowland village is steeped in history<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">with stories and legends and fables of mystery:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Guthlac* arrived to banish all that was bad,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">then suffered the ague that sent people mad.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">BARE FIELDS<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Harvest safely gathered in,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">barren fields across the fen,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">blend with clouds from distant lands,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">with only tramlines now and then.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">PREPARING THE FEN DRAINS FOR WINTER FLOODS<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Mowers and cutters flail in rage<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">along the dykes, the leams and drains;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">they’re cutting sedges, grass and rushes,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">buntings and warblers look on in vain.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SPRING IN THE SKY<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I yearn for winter days to cease<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">and seek new heights that glorify,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">adorned with spotless shimmering clouds<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">that fill the generous Fenland sky.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SPRING IN THE SKY<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I yearn for winter days to cease<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">and seek new heights that glorify,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">adorned with spotless shimmering clouds<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">that fill the generous Fenland sky.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">LAST SUNRISE OF THE YEAR<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>Over a year, as the sun rises across the great Fenland plain, it traverses points on the horizon in an arch of 30’NE and 30’ESE. At the March and September equinoxes, when day and night are equal, the sun rises closest to the equator. March equinox signals the first day of spring, while the September equinox marks the end of summer. I have always noticed where and when the sun rises on the skyline.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">His journey of the day is brief,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">time is short and light is low;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">these winter months, when storms prevail,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">are blown with rain and ice and snow.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">RAINBOWS<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I saw a halo across the fen,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">so close and yet so far away,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">encasing fields within its grasp,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">lingering rainstorms kept at bay.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">MORNING CALL<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>I recall owls around the farm all my life, and have erected nest boxes as enticement, along with perching poles in places they rest between hunting. Some poles are floodlit so we can view them in darkness from our summer house. We have also released barn owls that have recuperated after road injuries. After all these years they still excite me; they appear from nowhere, then disappear like ghosts.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">As dawn at last begins to break<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">the fen wakes up in glowing light,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">far off horizons come to view,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">shadows appear with strengthening might.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">MY TIMEPIECE<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I have a watch, I have a clock that’s hanging on the wall,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">but I have a favourite timepiece that I treasure most of all;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">it wakes me in the morning and at breaking of the dawn,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">then it tucks me kindly up in bed when life becomes forlorn.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A FEN BLOW<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>On the black fens, named for their peat soils and often known as ‘moors’, strong spring and autumn winds catch up fine particles until the air is filled with black peat specks whipped up from the ground. In these seasons the peat soils were often void of crops. Fen blows occur less today since, when main crops have been harvested, cover crops are drilled into the peat forming a blanket over the soil.</i><b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Equinox, a word that peat-land farmers fear,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a time that happens twice a year;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">strong winds blow, and strafe our void flat land,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">filling the air with soil like shifting sand.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE DROVER<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Back in the days before powered transport<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">the foot and the hoof ruled the day;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">flocks and herds were driven to market,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">along stock lanes and droves was the way.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">WIND<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Psithurism [sith-er-izz-um]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">I have always been conscious of the wind, living as I do in flat fen land where there is little to hinder it; but when obstructed it speaks to me in many tones. Wind is soundless, invisible, odourless, inanimate, heard only when blowing past or through something. It takes sonic guises depending on what it interacts with. Wind may not be seen, but its presence is recognised by influences on materials or objects it contacts. It can collect odours and carry them long distances.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Wind has no voice or song,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">it needs a host to utter sounds;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">buildings trees or hindrances,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">when one is found it has no bounds.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">FEN FAUNA AND FLORA<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">ROOKS’ DAILY JAUNTS<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>We have always lived next to a colony of rooks and I’ve been fascinated observing them. I notice rookeries when travelling too. These birds seem unafraid of urban noises or interference and like living close to humans. They venture across the fields to forage for their morning feed or maybe just to explore the countryside. I especially notice them return to the rookeries in the evening, boisterous in a flight that either hugs the ground in strong winds or very high when winds are light. Rooks are gregarious and extremely vocal in flight, often chattering amongst themselves. They seem to fly in pairs within the colony, sometimes breaking away then re-joining the flight.</i> <i>A colony lived near us for as long as my father could remember. One day we noticed they had deserted the rookery and Father declared there would never be luck in that house again. Since then, many families have come and gone – mostly through bad luck.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">A parliament of rooks adjourn,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">from Crowland Abbey they have come,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">making haste to forage fields,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">flying high with boisterous song.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">ROOKS AT NESTING TIME<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">A world wakens to springtime calls,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"> darkness conceding to twilit scenes,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"> the moon accedes to sunlit hours,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">winter succumbs to summer’s dreams.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">ROOKS DESERTING THEIR HOME<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Troubled rooks are on the wing,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">a parliament has left its home,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"> a curse has settled on that place<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">and the parliament will roam.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">REED BEDS<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>I walk daily along Fenland water courses that hold an abundance of reedbeds in spring and summer. Due to drainage maintenance essential for winter rains, most channels are void of reedbeds in winter. Today, however, fewer reedbeds are cut, leaving alternate banks unmown on an annual rotation.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I have a stretch of reedbeds<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">in a peaceful corner of the farm;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">they’re in a dyke we never flail<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">so it retains a natural charm.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">NORFOLK’S PINK-FOOTED GEESE<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>‘Pink-feet’ geese summer in Iceland where thy breed, then migrate south to overwinter. Thousands arrive in North Norfolk marshes in October and November to feed on sugar beet and carrot harvest residues. They overnight on the marshes and move inland at daybreak to feed, returning at dusk. The nutritious diet, of mainly sugar-beet tops, prepares them for their next breeding season in Iceland. Often the sky is alive with ‘pink-feet’ and the sight and sounds are very moving, especially when morning or evening sun shines on their formations.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Dawn breaks across an English marsh<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">as creeks give way to rising tides;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">pink-feet complete their morning chores,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">prepare to leave these Norfolk shores.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SKYLARK<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i>Skylarks have nested at Turfpits all my life, on the same field areas as I remember from childhood.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">As the morning chorus waits its cue<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">above the fen, skylarks climb in the mystic air<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">to sing their song, and dance to the stirring crowd<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">whose morning begins beneath that crimson cloud.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">BLACKBIRD<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>My first morning caller, and the last at night, is a blackbird who never seems to sleep. For years we watched one with a white spot on the crown of its head. We fed him apples each winter and, if we forgot, he would fly into the store and steal one. He disappeared one winter and we still miss him.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">As moonbeams slip out of sight<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">the blackbird stirs at light of dawn,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">his chirping rouses all around<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">long before shadows have drawn.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">ROBIN<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i>Robins can be aggressively territorial and, sadly, I find the odd dead one on the lawn.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I have a robin in my garden<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">whom I see as day begins,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">he sits upon the apple tree,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">smiles and cocks his head with glee.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE GREEN WOODPECKER<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><i>I don’t recall green woodpeckers on the farm when I was young, but they have become numerous over past decades. It strikes me as unusual, as in my youth pasture was plentiful.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">He tumbles in from nearby woods<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">lighting on the fresh mown lawn,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">head erect and stance so bold,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SEAGULLS ON THE PLOUGH<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>I remember when horses pulled the plough before being superseded by tractors in the late 1940s. Land was ploughed more often then, with buried soil being brought to the surface around every third year in those days. The surface soil has borne many imprints upon it from farmers, machinery tyres, birds and mammals.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I saw a thousand seagulls, circling in the sky,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">waiting for the ploughman to begin his toil,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">preparing his fields for future crops<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">THE SILVER RUN<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>The European brown eel starts life in the Atlantic Ocean’s Sargasso Sea, east of Florida. After spawning, the elvers or ‘glass eels’ migrate to Europe on the Gulf Stream, finding their way into Fenland rivers, dykes, leams, loads. After several years in the fens a breeding instinct changes their metabolism and colour, and they increase body fat to sustain their 5,000 km return journey to the Sargasso Sea. Migration peaks around the first new moon of September when they leave the fens, even travelling overland to reach rivers, heading for the sea. When this phenomenon occurs the eels are called ‘silvers’, and are much sought after as a centuries-old smoked delicacy for European gourmets. Eel populations declined over two decades, but numbers are increasing with the advent of eel passes at drainage pumps, making their passage into the fens easier. Eels, nutritious and high in protein, were vital to fen economy and it is said that Ely Cathedral was built from the revenue from eels.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Darkness hides the new moon’s face,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> surrounding stars shine like silver lace,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the time the eel-man calls Black Moon,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">AN EEL-MAN’S LAMENT<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Written after a temporary ban on eel fishing in the fens, July 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Herons screeching, swans are hissing,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">gulls are soaring, something’s missing,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">pike are restless, diet waning,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in the waters something’s changing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">SPARROW HAWK</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> AT THE DRINKING POOL<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As evening fades there is a calmness in the air,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">at sunset all have come to drink their share:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">blackbirds drink in a puddle by the stream,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">starlings, thrushes, sparrows watched by basking bream.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">MARSH HARRIER<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>I don’t remember seeing a marsh harrier on the farm in my youth. I saw my first in the late 20<sup>th</sup> century. Wheeler’s ‘A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire’ (1868), mentions many birds, some of which are extinct today, but there is no mention of the marsh harrier.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Harvest time across the fens, crops are being cleared<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">corn and straw are both removed, stubble has appeared;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">bare and barren soil remains a hiding place no more,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">neither for lonely field mouse, nor rabbits by the score.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">BEWICK SWANS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Bewick and Whooper swans migrate to the fens for our winter, the Bewick from Siberia and the Whooper from Iceland. Both species are spotted in the Nene and Ouse washes from October to March, where the Bewick makes a loud honking in flight and a quieter babbling when feeding. The Bewick is smaller than the Whooper (both are smaller than our indigenous Mute swan), and was recorded by Peter Scott in the early 1960s. These swans, who mate for life, form a magical spectacle at Welney Wetland Trust.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There is a chill across the tundra wastes<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">when summer ends, so nature states<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">swans must look for pastures new<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">THE SWANS’ OMEN<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We find it harder every year<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to choose our breeding grounds,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">humans are creeping closer,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and we’re hearing urban sounds.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Living space is hard to track,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">together with our feeding;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">migration, we well know these days,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">takes on another meaning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE SPIDER’S WEB<o:p></o:p></p><p align="left" class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">For Jo Smith (née Pick) a farmer’s daughter who made me a postcard of a spider’s web. I sent her this poem in return, and she urged me to publish it one day.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The dew rests on the grass from morning mist,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">relic of night, when sun and moon have kissed,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">lies fresh and cool on leaves of crops and trees,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">refreshes cattle, insects, birds and sheep and bees.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">CHRISTMAS ROSE*<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><i>The myth goes that a young girl watched travellers taking the baby Jesus a gift of beautiful flowers, making her sad that she none to offer. An angel felt sorry for her and dug down in the snow to reveal a Christmas rose which she gave to the girl for Jesus.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">A sight to greet me came today,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">a face appeared so bright and warm,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">its petals gleamed as white as snow,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">it smiled against a winter’s storm.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SPRING<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Christmas Rose has come and gone,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">a welcome to the coming year,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">a brief encounter with this world,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">she came and went without a tear.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE OLD MAN OF THE RIVER<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>My wife and I often walk our two dogs along the Maxey Cut to join the River Welland, and towards Deeping St James. On the river bank is an old willow tree that has been pollard over many years.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Watching waters take their course<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">under bridges, now and then<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">flowing through the locks and weirs<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">sourced from hills, then into fen.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE HARE<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">We love the wildlife on our farm,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">our favourite is the old brown hare,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">elusive, shy and seldom seen,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">a life together that we share.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">LEAVES<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Trees unrobed in winter months<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">show off their basic body form,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">trunks portray their hoary years,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">cleansed by the winter storm.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">GREY HERON<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>Fen watercourses are ‘mudded-out’ in early autumn to prepare for winter rains. As machines gather drain spoil, to deposit it on the bank, eels and small fish are sometimes caught in the excavator’s bucket and left on the bank. It is not unusual to see herons waiting each morning for the drivers to start work, then following the machines all day. They scavenge fish, eels, and even water vole, dropping them on a road to kill them before eating.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">A ghostly figure stands alone<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">among the shimmering reeds,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">with no set piece, but time to spare<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">to hunt her prey and fill her needs.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE SACRED BIRD<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>Swallows have nested on our various farm buildings for as long as I can remember. The numbers fluctuate annually. In drier seasons, when the dykes are empty, I ensure water is available for them to gather wet mud for nest- building. I open the stable doors at the beginning of April to welcome them to their old nesting haunts. With their forked tails, swallows fascinate me as they perch on the telephone wires. Southern African friends often let me know when the swallows are mustering in large flights before setting off on their migration to Europe.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">As I search the springtime sky<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">for this year’s swallows to appear<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">and await the greeting sound<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">WREN<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">A pleasing sight to start the day<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">to see a wren flit like the bees,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">hunting for her morning meal,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"> foraging under the leaves.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 42.66667175292969px;">TIMES &TIMELESSNESS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.33333206176758px;">friends, family and pets</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 42.66667175292969px;">.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">TIME<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">There was a time when time did not exist,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">when light and darkness ruled and set the scene,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">when ticking clock and chimes were still unheard,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">when nature ruled and no one yet demurred.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">STEPH<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Teenage years seem long ago<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">but memories are still fresh,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I saw a pretty girl one day –<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">that girl I saw was Steph.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">AGE<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">(On my seventieth birthday, 2010)<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">On reaching this exalted day of three score years and ten<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I reminisced about the past but pondered, <i>So, what then?</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">What of my unseasoned years when life was funny and carefree,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">those youthful days when worries never could exist in me?<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE GRIMSBY FISH TRAIN<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>The March railway station, south from Postland on the LNER line, was one of the largest marshalling yards in the UK until it was closed in the 1970s. This line ran through our farm so that sights, odours and sounds from goods passing along the line were part of everyday life. The Hump, which can still be seen, was an enormous mound outside the town of March where trucks were shunted up to the top, uncoupled, and run down the other side to be directed into a series of lines depending on their destination.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE WHISKY TRAIN<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">There was a tale of mirth and mystery<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">from voices heard across the fen,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">but kept in secret since those days<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">of pirates, brigands and unruly men.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">A railway train rattles through the farm<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">smoke pluming from the engine’s stack;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">it’s the Grimsby fish-train right on time,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">with ice-blue vans from front to back.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">FINDING SILENCE<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Here is a word of little meaning,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">it blights our lives and clouds my mind;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">elusive in this hurrying world<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">where pure silence is hard to find.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">CORONAVIRUS<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Since human life began on earth<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"> and people roamed its seas and lands,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">the pace of life was theirs to share,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">until a trauma tied their hands.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">THE BLUE BELL<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">If you have a love of eating, and passion for a wine,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">and you’re prepared to travel, to carouse, to drink or dine,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">go out into the countryside, find a lane or village green,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">look around for somewhere cosy, somewhere you may not be seen,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">seek out a pub or find an inn where local folks gather to talk<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">and a footpath that you fancy, if you choose to take a walk.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">If in wintertime a log fire cracks and hisses to give cheer,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">go in and sit beside it, try a glass of wine or local beer:<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">The Blue Bell Inn is such a place, in all good faith I say,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">it’s always been a choice inn, and still it is today.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Next door to John Clare’s cottage, close to Helpston centre,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">it’s worth a try, I know – so go on out, have an adventure.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">FARM WORKERS<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">The soul of a farm is its labour force,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">the men and boys with tales to tell<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">of mothers, daughters, sweethearts too;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">some have many, some have few.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">UTOPIA<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Probably my first poem, remembering boarding school days in Sussex, 1947–1956<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I sit and dream, and sleep and dream, of heaven upon this earth;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I do it every day, in fact I’ve done so since my birth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When I was young I dreamed about my games and sweets and toys,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I did not think it odd because I thought like other boys;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I dreamed about my Border Terrier, Tilley, my loving pride,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">then waking from a dream one day, I realised she’d died.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">LOSS OF A FRIEND<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This day I returned from that church across the dell,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a sorrow lingering in my ears, a sound of funeral bell<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that struck a chord within my heart, its deathly chime<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">that life has ceased for one, that marks the end of time<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">A FARMING FRIEND<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">To David Coles of Thorney Fen<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>Cattle</i> <i>farmers are required by law to test for tuberculosis, but this can be a stressful event, followed by a harrowing time awaiting test results. Many farmers helped bring their cows into the world, assisted in their calving, and nursed them when sick, all of which creates a strong bond between farmer and beast.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I had a friend who farmed in Thorney Fen;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">arable with livestock was his farming way,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">but his great passion was his cows and calves,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">a farmer of tradition, I would say.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center; text-indent: 1cm;">TO SIR STEPHEN HASTINGS, MC – MY FRIEND<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center; text-indent: 1cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm; text-align: center;"><i>Duty and devotion were his battle cries, and woe betide his foes.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm; text-align: center;"><i>He cheated death so many times and yet, within its throes,<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm; text-align: center;"><i>The drone of graveside bagpipes wails on in my ears<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm; text-align: center;"><i>Fuelling emotions, swelling eyes awash with tears.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm; text-align: center;"><i>Last Post played by a bugler for this warrior laid to rest<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm; text-align: center;"><i>Whose life, from start to ending, remained an unfilled quest.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm; text-align: center;"><i>But he now lies at peace beside his beloved mate,<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm; text-align: center;"><i>Prepared and groomed – just as in battle – to await his fate.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">THE LONG ROOM AT LORDS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: red;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>My son, James, was a playing member of MCC. This poem is a reminder of the day he played cricket at Lords for the East Midlands Counties members.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In years gone by, I’ve sat and watched the cricket play at Lords,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">enjoyed the battles at the crease where nations have crossed swords.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Flags have flown, proud emblems raised from every sporting nation,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">insignia adorned the pitch, to mark their countries station.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fine gladiators have been drawn to pitch their skills on hallowed turf;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a game it is but, to the bitter end, each shows his worth;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">their triumphs and their failures, their glories and their doom,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">all begin and end with that walk across the long room.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">QUEEN FOR A DAY<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Filming in the fen, with Selina Scott: ITV 1 Thursday, 29<sup>th</sup> March 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The sun rose up across the fen<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and with it came the morning mist;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">humans stirred and nature woke,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">where sun and moon had kissed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">FAMILY<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We plough the land and till and sow<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and pray to God that crops will grow;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">we nurse the crops that each man needs,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">keep some to eat and some for seeds.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">WALTER SLY<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(1660–1717)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Walter was a gentleman born of Fenland people,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">christened in Thorney Abbey, a church without a steeple.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Walter was a trusted man, with position to uphold;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he ran the decoy, farmed as well, so we are told.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">THE FAMILY CLOCK*<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I have a family clock that’s nothing very grand<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">but to me and my contemporaries it’s the finest in the land,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">it hangs upon the wall, as it has always done,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">ticking for my father and now ticking for my son.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">BIB’S SPINNEY<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">‘Bib’ was my father, although Harold was his name,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a quiet understanding man, his father was the same.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Bib always loved his cattle, his pigs and horses too,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he also loved his farm men and the family, through and through</span><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ALLEN SLY AND HIS FAMILY<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">My grandfather’s name was Allen, and his brother was called Blott,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">an unfamiliar name that does not fit the family plot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">His other brother, Fred, prematurely left life’s stage,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">dying from an illness early in his middle age.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Allen’s been a family name since 1725<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">but hasn’t been used recently, since they’ve all lived and died.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Allen and his wife Ada had Arthur, Stan and Harold –<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">then along came Cissy to make up the family fold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">AUNTY FLIP<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I have an Aunty Phillipa whom everyone calls Flip,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">she is rather portly and has hairs beneath her bottom lip.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Flip rides to hounds all season, judges horse events in summertime,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">wears breeches, jeans and jodhpurs, and boots that never shine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">She is a horse flesh expert, ranks every shape and size,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">but father says she’s lonely, which could be to her demise.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Flip has no man of meaning but a Jack Russell, name of Russ,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">who chases cats and other dogs and causes Flip to cuss.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">She loves to walk hound-puppies and always has a couple;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">she loves hunt suppers, breakfasts, teas, and sure enjoys a tipple.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Flip wears a skirt infrequently, one made of Harris Tweed,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and when she does my father warns that men must all take heed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">She will never change her ways for man or beast, we do know that,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">but that’s the way we love her, with her horse and dog and tabby cat.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">TERRIERS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There has to be a terrier on the farm, it is a must;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of any shape or size and has to be one we can trust.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">They must be good with children, the postman and the cats,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">but nurse hatred for the vermin, especially the rats.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We’ve always had a terrier and maybe always will,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the one we have at present is a Border, name of Till.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">She makes the cats’ lives hell, and hates hedgehogs even more,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">would like to bite the postman, and kills rats by the score.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A FATHER’S ADVICE<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">My father was a wise man who quoted wise old fables;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he rehearsed them on the farm, but mostly round the kitchen table.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">One he told from time to time, in family discourse,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">was how “cattle buy the saddle, but the sheep will buy the horse”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sheep became our mainstay, as they were in times of old;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">they fertilise the soil and they are never left unsold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">STEPPING OFF THE FEN-EDGE<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">&<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">STEPPING BACK HOME<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><i>The Fen-edge is a liminal divide that separates low-lying fens from the upland. Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk all lay claim to areas of fen and so include Fen-edge in their domain. It roughly follows the 5-metre mean sea level recorded at Newlyn, Cornwall.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">UMBRIAN DAWN<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">May 19<sup>th</sup>, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Breaking dawn unveils the hills<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">exposing man’s unending chores,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">olive groves through lingering mists,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">mingled with the harvest straws.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ROCKTAIL BAY<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">North Natal Coast, South Africa; breeding ground of Leatherback and Loggerhead turtles.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Night tides from the distant seas<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">leave lines of shining dross,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">patterns etched upon the sands,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">silhouettes that criss and cross.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">HOWARD’S BUSH CAMP<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The camp is in the Klaserie Nature Reserve and belongs to a good friend. My wife Steph and I have spent wonderful times there, sometimes on our own.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Dawn across the Lowveld Bush<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">unveils the face of nature’s bride;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">her beauty’s etched upon this earth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and time is always on her side.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">VOORTREKKERS<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>A young Afrikaner farmer in the High Veld was once showing me his pedigree cattle with great pride. It was with a developer who wanted to flood the valley for trout fishing. The farmer explained that the land was his best summer grazing and asked where he would put his cattle in the summer months. The developer advised selling his cattle because he would make more money from the fishing. “My ancestors walked these cattle’s progeny from the Cape, in the Great 1000-mile Trek, I could never sell them,” the farmer said. <o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Wagon wheels cease their groaning chore,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">laagered* for the night they’ll turn no more;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">the sun goes down his work is done,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">the beginning and end of labour for some.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">BLACK DOG COTTAGE<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">New Zealand, February 2006<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Written at the isolated beach house of Mark and Vicky Williams. Vicky is artistic, inspired to paint and utilise materials from her surrounding natural environment.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Waters from a distant ocean<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">race in here from far-off lands,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">crests of waves as white as snow<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">tumble to the waiting sands.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Never still and always flowing,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SAND DUNES ON THE NORFOLK COAST<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm;"><i>I have visited the North Norfolk Coast since I could first walk and every year since, in all seasons. In my youth we drove our Land Rover onto the beach, cooked breakfast and lunch, swam and fished there until the tide came in. Not today. There are no vehicles on the beach and no fishing, shrimping or crabbing, which provided our lunches. But we still visit the Norfolk Coast, mostly in winter months, where we love to see and hear the Pink-feet geese.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">A wild allusive blissful place<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">among the sand dunes near the sea,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">places to hide and rest your soul,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">a heaven for others as well as me.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">SHIFTING SANDS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Raging winds whisk up from off the sea,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">harsh sounds of tempests fill the air,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">birds are gleaning fresh washed sands,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">lonely walkers stand and stare.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">MARTIN FEN<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>James John Hissey published ‘Over Fen and Wold’ in 1889. He describes crossing Martin Fen, which was ‘almost treeless and hedgeless and wholly wanting the wild, weird beauty of the wider Fenland, with its magic of colour and mystery of distance’.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I gazed across the open plain<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">where fen blends into sky,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">with only me between them both<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">where spirits linger, rest and lie.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">BOMBER COUNTRY<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><i>I witnessed thousands of aircraft leave on bombing raids over Europe. Sadly, those coming home were fewer.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I saw the bombers climbing high<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">against the Fenland’s setting sun,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">off to a foreign land for war,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">to battle against the dreaded Hun.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">MEMORIAL IN MARTIN FEN<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>Crossing Martin Fen, I found this plaque on a gatepost, memorialising a Lancaster crew from RAF Metheringham who crashed on return from a bombing raid on Berlin, 15<sup>th</sup> February 1944. They returned safely, but collided with another aircraft while circuiting to land. Five crew members died and two were injured, but survived.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I saw a plaque in Martin Fen<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">to flying men who gave their best,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">who sacrificed their lives for ours;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">on Fenland soil their spirits rest.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SAINT ANDREW’S SPIRE, HECKINGTON<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>While admiring the Godson Almshouses behind St Andrews I recalled WF Rawnsley, author of ‘Lincolnshire Highways and Byways’, who described St Andrews as “one of the wonders of Lincolnshire”. Vapour trails were a common sight from the many RAF aircraft based here.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Strolling around Heckington village,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">while admiring Godson’s Homes,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">my attention is drawn to skies above,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">streaks hanging over me, forming domes.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">SEMPRINGHAM ABBEY<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>Sempringham Abbey was the home of the Gilbertine Order, the only indigenous English Catholic Order of monks and nuns, from the twelfth century until the Reformation.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">There is a church that stands just off the fen,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">a house where monks and nuns once made their vows,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">where austere Gilbertines worshipped their God;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">now only spirits rest under that sacred sod.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">FLOWING BROOKS<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">From off the heath the water flows,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">that the Dunston Beck will steer<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">through the village and past the green;<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">its waters bright and crystal clear<o:p></o:p></p><div><hr align="left" class="msocomoff" size="1" width="33%" /><div><div class="msocomtxt" id="_com_1" language="JavaScript"><a name="_msocom_1"></a><p class="MsoCommentText" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p></div></div></div></div>Rex Slyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853110601147315299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919526610818915976.post-161053916185724192021-10-08T02:10:00.000-07:002021-10-08T02:10:56.288-07:00<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uoPMiebBUhY/YU8DsNO8iZI/AAAAAAAAAws/o_4BuDfHaqQiO9ZAlkCEJM3YjwfXF-b_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/proof%2Bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uoPMiebBUhY/YU8DsNO8iZI/AAAAAAAAAws/o_4BuDfHaqQiO9ZAlkCEJM3YjwfXF-b_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/proof%2Bcopy.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">SUNSET IN THE FENS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I never tire of our sunsets over the fens.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Unlike in a landscape of hills and mountains,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">light lingers as if it does not wish to leave us,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">until it finally disappears below the earth’s curvature.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">A time of day when life must ease its pace,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">when darkness fills that bright-lit space;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">the fading sun serenely makes retreat<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">when day’s sounds cease and night calls beat.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">He seems to pause as if he will not leave<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">this earth he’s warmed, and life he has conceived.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">For one brief instant earth and time do not exist:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">that moment when the sun and moon have kissed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Birds fold tired wings and roost in branches high;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">butterflies rest, as cattle, sheep and horses lie,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">nocturnal creatures stir for night-time chores,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">to prowl and hunt and feed by nature’s laws.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Proudly the sun reflects its image on the moon,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">emblazing stars and galaxies, solitary and strewn.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">We trust that this immortal sphere will never wane,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">and know for certain it will rise again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The sun has not deserted us, but only slipped away,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">to greet us in the morning, bringing forth another day,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">a spectacle on earth that even now holds me in awe,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoTitle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">outside man’s jurisdiction, yet under someone’s law.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;"> </span></p>Rex Slyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853110601147315299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919526610818915976.post-66596071994974694542021-08-27T03:36:00.000-07:002021-08-27T03:36:35.073-07:00<p style="text-align: center;"><b> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">PUBLISHING MY POETRY</span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Throughout my life I have always loved poetry especially poems on the countryside, its fauna and flora and the people who live and work in it. <o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">A person’s vision living in the fens is two thirds sky in an ever-changing panorama.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Maybe the openness of the fens with its vast skies under which I have lived all my life has made me tend to gaze into another world, a poetic world. <o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I was discouraged to take poetry seriously always being told there is so little demand or financial reward for it, and difficult to find a publisher anyway.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Having reached the age of eighty-one, with four books on the fens published I decided to published my poetry collection before it is too late. <o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">I accept it will not be for monetary gain, but a poetic record of my life as a countryman in a land my ancestors have lived and farmed in for over three centuries.<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Eccentric maybe, extravagant yes, reckless could be, self-satisfying yes. <o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">When published my poems will be on record should anyone wish to read them ? if not there will at least be a copy in the British Library under an ISBN No. <o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-urICtvSMHh8/YSi-Q4rrhdI/AAAAAAAAAv8/FlFD4LQexDYJMBzBWlLnZH96thoSkewuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1159/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-23%2Bat%2B12.04.12.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="847" data-original-width="1159" height="234" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-urICtvSMHh8/YSi-Q4rrhdI/AAAAAAAAAv8/FlFD4LQexDYJMBzBWlLnZH96thoSkewuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-23%2Bat%2B12.04.12.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">There are four sections to the collection</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b>MY HOMELAND THE FENS</b><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Thirty-five poems<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b>FEN FAUNA AND FLORA</b><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Twenty-five poems<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b>TIME AND TIMELINESS ‘friends family and pets’</b><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Twenty-three poems<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b>STEPPING OFF THE FEN AND STEPPING BACK</b><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Thirteen poems<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">The book will be available in <b>October </b><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">direct from,<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b>My printers and distributers York Publishing Services.</b><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Link available in Oct<o:p></o:p></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">YPS also supply Amazon and any retailers and wholesalers who wish to sell the book.</span>Rex Slyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853110601147315299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919526610818915976.post-73201327355250164432010-09-19T09:41:00.000-07:002010-09-19T10:09:46.714-07:00Soil in Their Souls<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Mrvo1eeHUwM/TJZCSsVIOvI/AAAAAAAAABo/0DMQ0XJy-eA/s1600/9780752457338.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 137px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518671282293979890" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Mrvo1eeHUwM/TJZCSsVIOvI/AAAAAAAAABo/0DMQ0XJy-eA/s200/9780752457338.jpg" /></a><br /><div>My publishers have sent my third book "Soil in Their Souls" to the "pagers" who prepare it for print on A3 pages for me to check and amend if required. <strong>It will be available in early November we will be holding a GRAND book launch and talk on the 12th Nov at "BOOKMARK" of Spalding where I had had my 2 previous book launches.</strong></div><div>Chris Hanson the owner of Bookmark makes it a party atmosphere so put it in you diary.</div>Rex Slyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853110601147315299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919526610818915976.post-14354371677812156602010-03-03T05:51:00.000-08:002010-03-13T00:09:40.325-08:00The History of Peterborough Corn ExchangeThe Peterborough Corn Exchange was opened 1848 and demolished I the 1960s. I have found very little documentation on the exchange only a list of the 94 stands in the building in the 1920s with the names of firms on each stand. I am trying to find out what business each stand holder was in at that period. I have managed to list the type of occupation many stand holders were in, but not all. As far as I know there are no later lists of stand holders. This was a great part of our Agricultural History and should be recorded. If anyone could add to this list I would be very grateful. You can contact me through my website, <a href="http://www.rexslyinthefens.com/">http://www.rexslyinthefens.com/</a>.<br /><br />STAND NO, NAME <br />The folowing have not been identified ;<br />2 F Dixon Ltd 4 E O Coulson 8 R T Smith 11 J H V French<br />30 Browns & Goodman 31 L Bassett 33 W M Geddes R B Kirby<br />35 Walter 36 Flowers & Addington 38 A Leake & Son 42 F E & V Goddard 43 W M Cooper & Son 43 W S White & Co 44 E Keighley & Co<br />45 Gastons Ltd Siddons & Son 49 T Morton March<br />56 Hart & Sons shared F Mackinder 58 J Curedale<br />60 E Y Newell & Sons 61 W & J Brown 63 Bernard Goode<br />65 Quibell Bros Ltd 66 G J Sampson & Son 67 Ashworth & Sons<br />68 Wilson & Son Ltd Wisbech 73 Sowerby & Co Ltd<br />74 Rose & Sons Ltd Whittlesey shared J King & Sons<br />78 Peterborough Syndicate Ltd 81 Green & Baxter 82 Herbert Parker Ltd<br />83 G A Bunting 89 Doughty Richardson & Co 90 Foley BrosRex Slyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853110601147315299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919526610818915976.post-52074041292852044522007-12-05T14:43:00.000-08:002007-12-05T14:47:07.753-08:00BBC Countryfile in the FensThe BBC Countryfile team were filming in the Fens this week (4th 5th December)<br />I spent the morning with them in the company of Ben Fogle at Ely. My involvement came about because of my latest book “ Fenland Families” which is about Fenland Families who have been in business/trade or profession for three generations or more. Three families in the book were at Ely, Burrows, newsagents, Gibbs shoe shop and Bonnetts the bakers. The film crew then went on to Elgoods Brewers of Wisbech where they filmed the brewery along with the Elgood family. Elgoods together with Batemans of Wainfleet are two of the few family owned traditional breweries left in the UK. The programme highlights an area of the UK which has by its very nature retained strong links between traditional family concerns and the people who live there. Against all odds these families have survived to retain a unique part of our fenland society. It gave me great pleasure to record them in my book.<br />The programme will be on BBC TV at 11am Sunday 9th December.<br />Rex SlyRex Slyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853110601147315299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919526610818915976.post-77894767009460165992007-10-22T11:37:00.000-07:002007-10-22T11:38:17.069-07:00Malaria in the FensFen Ague or Marsh fever, was an endemic disease once common in the East Anglican Fens. The English word Ague derives from Old French “ague” meaning “sever fever”.<br /><br />The word was used in Geoffry Chaucer’s “Nun’s priest tales” in the 14th c and William Shakespeare refers to it in many of his plays.<br /><br />Samuel Pepys, the diarist, suffered from Ague and Oliver Cromwell died of tertian ague in 1658.<br />It was thought the fever came from inhaling miasma given off during warm, hot weather.<br />Bargemen were susceptible to this disease as were those who lived and worked near the fen watercourses.<br /><br />Major drainage of the Fens during the 17th c coupled with better personal hygiene alongside Britain entering a cooler period “the mini ice age” led to the decreased in Fen Ague. The disease was not unique to the Fens many marshlands in England also were know for this fever especially in Essex and along the Thames valley.<br /><br />It was not until the 19th c that the word malaria (malus aria, Latin for bad air) began to replaced the word Ague and the disease died out.<br /><br />It was, at this time realised that malaria was due to a protozoan parasite transmitted by the mosquito and not miasma.<br /><br />The fen people had no cure for this disease, only sedatives such as opium and various potions made for indigenous plants, herbs and bark from ash trees to relieve the fever. Alcohol and Opium were commonly used to suppress the rigors of the first stages of ague.<br /><br />The fens became notorious for “ Opium eaters” and laudanum given to children during teething which may have initiated this habit in their later lives. One Fenland physician wrote that “ a patch of white poppies was usually found in most Fen gardens”.<br /><br />In the 17th c Robert Brady used cinchona powder, whose principle ingredient was quinine to treat Ague, which still used today. This was made from the bark of a several trees growing in Peru and Bolivia both Catholic countries. In Great Britain it became known as “Jesuit’s Powder” and some physicians of the Protestant orthodox religion were prejudice to it’s use in treating Ague.<br /><br />By the mid 20th c the disease was found to be transmitted by the mosquito.<br /><br />The strains of mosquitoes in the Fens at that time have become extinct. If malaria carrying mosquitoes did enter the Fens (which is unlikely) the disease could only be passed to humans from the insects carrying infect blood from other humans with the disease. There would have to be many humans infected for this to happen. There are more than 30 species of mosquitoes in Britain at this time and the vast majority do not bite humans.Rex Slyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853110601147315299noreply@blogger.com4