John Clare Country

Today I went for a long local walk to clear my head. It only drizzled a little, and I had a lovely late picnic down by the river. Much of the walk went through the landscape John Clare lived in and wrote his poetry about, lamenting the enclosures of the 18th century. It’s ironic that nearly two centuries later, we and our wildlife are so used to the hedgerows we lament their removal. Main pic is a hawthorn planted on the site of earlier ones, in a spot rich in local history - meeting place, court, ancient barrow..... read more about it in the extra oic.