The edgelands

Despite the heat we went on one of our favourite walks today, to Hackney Marshes, and along the Stover Canal. The river Teign emerges in the Marshes and goes out to sea at Teignmouth. The railway goes right through and there are old bridges and tracks. There is an industrial estate nearby, and it borders Newton Abbott racecourse. I didn’t know until yesterday from a library book that these areas are known as Edgelands. ‘These are the debatable spaces where city and the countryside fray into one another. These are places where all sorts of interest and beauty thrive.’ This is where we always see a kingfisher, and today there were four sightings. They seem to thrive in mucky streams and rivers. Usually there are families, dog walkers, and cyclists, but today we hardly saw anyone. Too hot maybe. I cropped the bridge to remove some of the edgeland vocabulary. We didn’t see a shopping trolley but we saw a woodpecker, and the bird of the day - the Kingfisher. Further along the old Stover Canal we had tea in bone china cups, and crumpets, in the Locks Bridge tea rooms, an antidote to edgeland.