HAVE YOUR SAY ON RURAL ISSUES
Share your views and opinions by writing to us at:
Have your say: BBC Countryfile Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST; or email editor@countryfile.com, tweet us @CountryfileMag or via Facebook facebook.com/countryfilemagazine
*We reserve the right to edit correspondence
LETTER OF THE MONTH
DARN GOOD SKILL
I really had to smile when I saw the article on ‘How to darn your socks’ (Month in the Country, February issue). But it brought back to me some great memories. My mum and dad both worked full time, so some jobs around the home were often left undone.
At junior school, when I was about eight, we were all in assembly when the teacher told me to pull up my socks from around my ankles. I pulled them up and revealed big holes in both socks. I felt really embarrassed so I learned quickly how to darn my own socks.
My mother always did the washing but there was always a pile of washed clothes waiting to be ironed. So again, as I got older, I learned to iron my shirts and trousers. At the age of 19, I went to do my National Service, and, as many of the lads had been well looked after by their mums, my domestic skills came to the fore. We were paid 18 shillings a week then, and I used to charge three shillings to press a squaddie’s ‘best dress uniform’. No steam irons then, so it was a mug of water and sheet of brown paper.
Time has passed and my wife and I are now both in our 80s, and though I have never allowed my wife to press my trousers, my domestic skills are once more being called upon, although I must admit to having difficulty ironing some lady’s articles. So, it’s my excuse to pass the steam iron over to her, while I sit and read every word of your wonderful magazine.
Editor Fergus Collins replies: Beautifully and very amusingly put. Darning socks should be a core life skill.
THE PRIZE:
This month’s star letter wins a Berghaus Unisex Arrow 30 Rucsac, black worth £65. This compact 30-litre daysack features pockets in the lid and on the sides, plus attachments for walking poles to keep all your gear organised, making it ideal for day walks. The Flow vented back system allows your skin to breathe and it comes with a packable rain cover, too. berghaus.com
HARVEST TRAMPING
January’s article on the itinerant workers known as Wolds Rangers reminded me of holidays I spent in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s with a school friend on their farm in Scackleton, North Yorkshire. It was during harvest time. One of the farm workers was a man called ‘Soldier Ted’. He went from farm to farm, wearing an old army uniform. He always looked clean and tidy. I can’t remember where he slept.
My friend and I took the ‘drinkings’ to the field that was being harvested. I remember that during those times, one could always see someone ‘tramping’ on the A64 and many minor roads.
IDENTIFYING TARGETS
I note your article on the ‘RSPB Bird Crime Report’ (February issue). I have owned guns and working dogs all my life. I have spent many hours in the countryside and I would never dream of pointing a gun at a bird of prey. Forgive the pun, but I think the shooting fraternity is an easy target for those who are ‘anti’ something they just don’t understand. I was always taught to identify any target before shooting at it. Bird identification is a crucial aspect of shooting (and birdwatching). We MUST get it right. The RSPB should spend more time educating the owners of domestic cats.
Fergus Collins replies: The Bird Crime Report was not focusing on accidental shootings of birds of prey but instead on deliberate persecution through trapping, poisoning and shooting.
ADMIRING ASSYNT
The February edition of BBC Countryfile Magazine was as interesting as always but I especially enjoyed the article describing your pleasurable visit to Assynt.
I am fortunate to own a charity-shop gem, a copy of the Scottish Gallery’s exhibition catalogue of James Morrison’s new paintings of the late summer of 2005.
Among the 44 paintings illustrated, Assynt features frequently, including Suilven, Quinag and the Summer Isles. It is a wonderful book to peruse at bedtime, particularly after a long day and being a dedicated armchair and bedtime traveller, it is wonderfully inspiring and relaxing. I just wish I could hear the cuckoos!
Fergus Collins: For someone who has fallen in love with Assynt in recent years, this sounds like the perfect book for me. I will drop hints to my family around birthday time…
HAPPY PLODDING
Recently I took my normal walk during my lunch break, excited about listening to the new Plodcast episode that had been published. It had been a series of grey days and I was looking forward to my pseudo country walk. Imagine my surprise when I listened to hear that, not only had you actually received the Christmas card that I had sent, but that you read it on the Plodcast! I was so honoured and delighted – I imagine I looked quite strange to the people I passed with a huge smile on my face.
I work as a therapist for children and while my work is immensely rewarding, it can also fill me with a heaviness, which is why I try to prioritise walking during the day to ground myself. The Plodcasts helps me connect to nature when I need it most. I am excited that I will be returning to the UK in mid-August this year to walk the Coleridge Way and am so looking forward to the experience. I only wish I was closer to the Plodcast studio to bring a batch of cookies!
I wonder if other listeners have experiences of healing work (personally or professionally) done in connection with nature – perhaps a theme for a future Plodcast series. I do know that the work of your team has helped me immensely and allowed me to return to my own work to be a better healer for the families that I support. So please know that the Plodcast has a ripple effect beyond just those who initially listen to it – you touch more people than you realise.
CORRECTION
We wrongly used a photograph of a male sparrowhawk instead of a goshawk in the ‘Behind the Headlines’ feature in the February issue of the magazine.
POETRY CORNER
What a delightful article by Phil Gates about snowdrops (February issue). I especially enjoyed the folklore around these beautiful dainty flowers and the extract from To a Snowdrop by Wordsworth. I went on to read the whole poem and was inspired to compose my own. I also attach a photograph I took of a snowdrop in Kendal.
Snowdrops
Such fragile and dainty flowers
Dancing in winter’s snowy breeze
Graceful ballet dancers with white tutus
On the stage of spring’s beginning
Snowdrop flowers are of snow white so pure.
Looks delicately made of icing sugar
That glistens in the winter’s ending sun
A sign, flowers like bells ringing out the proclamation.
That darkness of winter’s cold and death is now done.
The green leaves a verdant green
A sign of spring to come.
A celebration of winter’s end has now begun
All seen in the February sun.
As in the ancient wood in twisted leafless tree
A red-breasted robin sung.