Tag: nature

Blessed Stiperstones

On Stiperstones

The gorse is out

~

The heather’s purple

And there’s the shout

~

Of green

Bursting everywhere

~

I tread the way

And breathe the air

~

That’s freshest

Nearly anywhere –

~

And walk on blessed Stiperstones

Without a single care.

~

Rowan tree on the western side of The Stiperstones, Shropshire

Can you really love another place so dearly?

At Pontesford and Plealey

Where the meadows flow so freely

And you wonder can you really

Love another place so dearly –

~

The cattle stand

And you have found

A solace for your soul

~

Where earth rises

Up so greenly

~

And all is made

To seem so whole

So supremely.

Wild

I was recently walking on The Stiperstones, early in the morning. It was frosty, and the sun was just rising, and the wildness of this beautiful ridge in Shropshire came beautifully into view as two crows came to settle on the crags that form the hill’s jagged silhouette…

~

Wild

Amongst the Stretton hills

​~

Rolling

With buzzards and kites

​~

Wild

The fields that patch the plain

​~

With lambs that skip

And golden grain

​~

Wild

The rocks of Stiperstones

​~

Older than time

And dead mens’ bones

~​

Wild

The brooks

​~

Where dippers play

Kingfishers dart

​~

Wild the call

Of nature’s art

​~

Wild the call

To human hearts.

~

Lapwings at Melverley

I saw my first lapwing as a boy on a farm belonging to a family friend. It was a long way off, and all I remember is the tuft on its head. I remember thinking how magical it looked – especially to someone brought up in suburban London! It made my heart beat a little faster – the love affair had begun!

Decades later and I find myself in the Midlands, where, thankfully, lapwing are still not that uncommon, though nationally they are on the red list as of great concern.

In Shropshire, they can fairly regularly be seen at Venus Pool.

One spring I was treated to the wonderful spectacle of lapwings acrobatic, crazy flight and song, just over the Shropshire border in Staffordshire, as they chased, and were chased by, corvids, gulls and each other!

Their name lapwing may derive from the Anglo Saxon word for “leap” and “reel”, and as they displayed, I could see why!

Today it was the winter solstice of 2023, and I was treated to wonderful view of a lapwing flock wheeling around in the skies around Melverley:

Goldcrests on Haughmond Hill

They’re our smallest bird (along with their rarer relatives, firecrests), and many people probably live life without ever having seen one. But for me it is a pure delight whenever I hear their high-pitched, repetitive “cheep-cheep-cheep” and get to spot them in the undergrowth.

Not that they are easy to see! They are constantly on the move, and their olive-brown colouring makes them blend in so well with foliage, until you glimpse that beautiful yellow or yellow-orange stripe on their tiny heads.

This was actually a flock of four – I have only seen solitary goldcrests before – and they were incredibly undisturbed by my presence as they fidgeted and flicked around in the branches overhead as I descended from the eastern viewpoint at Haughmond Hill.

Last year, a brave little goldcrest made repeat visits to our garden (“Grateful for a Little Thing“), presumably collecting nesting materials…

But it was even more exciting to see this exquisite little flock of four dancing in the trees of Haughmond Hill.