Monday 5 November 2007

Heading north

OK, apart from Cornwall, everywhere you can get to by car is north of Devon. I've walked the dogs, washed off their beloved fox shit and am sorting out papers and stuff for my trip to the Midlands. Just a couple of days away, to see friends, and as a welcome change be on the receiving end of some training. I'm looking forward to it, but even before leaving am eager to return. This place has got its hooks deeply embedded in me. I thought that would take a lifetime but it seems not.
The rapid churning of the season just emphasises what I will miss by averting my eyes for 48 hours. Yesterday the small non-fruiting fruit tree in the garden planted by predecessors (cherry I think - the tree that is, not the previous owners) was aflame. Today the flames are snuffed out, every last flicker dropped to the ground. The hedge cutter will have topped and tailed a carefully selected range of the hedges whilst I'm gone. I hope he can make out my multi-coloured markings on the map of the farm, the paper tucked behind the steering wheel of the tractor or balanced on his knee as he traces his path, shaping and trimming the boundaries. I think I might also come back to a front door freshly painted if it doesn't rain.
Although the dogs will be walked, it won't be me that takes them. I won't see them flush out the incredible number of pheasants about at the moment or pursue a scent trail at speed, or stand with one paw raised as they stuff their snouts deep into a bank, inhaling the shadows of secretive creatures.
I will be visiting three old stamping grounds. I will notice major changes - houses built, children grown, alterations and improvements to my old home, Birmingham bustling. There will be puppies and toddlers and good conversation. I will learn things (I hope) and will have seven hours on the road all told, there and back, to think, to listen to the radio and just be. And then there will be the lane with the grass growing down the middle, and I will be home.

6 comments:

Whispering Walls said...

Hope you have a good time. How nice it will be to come home again.

Flowerpot said...

will be thinkng of you Mopsa and hope ti's a good trip. I have to go to London next week and feel exactly as you do. Whatever happens you have home to look forward to and the dogs.

Hannah Velten said...

Have a good time, Mopsa...By the way, that picture of the lane is exactly the farm track that I have in my mind when I'm writing my 'novel'...that was strange seeing it so exactly - even down to the left hand bend!

mountainear said...

Give us a wave as you hurtle past on your way to Birmingham. Enjoy your visit.

Anonymous said...

enjoy the going as it makes the coming back even better…

Mopsa said...

I did have a good time WW, but my, it's good to be back in the countryside.

Yes FP, it was lovely being greeted so enthusiastically by the mutts.

HV - that is the lane leading to the farm - ours on the left, neighbours on the right.

M'ear - here is your wave!

Paula - I'm back!