The shepherd on his pasture walks
The first fair cowslip finds,
Whose tufted flowers, on slender stalks,
Keep nodding to the winds.
And though the thorns withhold the May,
Their shades the violets bring,
Which children stoop for in their play
As tokens of the Spring.
‘April’, from the ‘The Shepherd’s
Calendar’ by John Clare
AN emerald wave-splash of cleavers up the hedge. When hurrying along the lane yesterday, I grabbed a handful of the cleavers’ Velcro-y tendrils, balled them up and threw them hazily over the gate to the waiting donkey. She has a taste for them. I misjudged the afternoon’s sailing sweet breeze slightly, she moved slightly and the bunched cleavers landed on top of her head, to sit like a green bird’s nest. She was not amused. I’m not one for diminishing the dignity of animals, but I confess to the difficulty of keeping a straight face at her comic headwear. As I leaned over the gate to restore her normal nobility, I was overtaken by one of those floods of memory of such vivid intensity that the effect is a physical arrestation. I was seven again, walking with my grandmother along the lane at Withington, and I dawdled behind to attach a strand of cleavers onto the back of her gabardine mac. A childish prank, known to generations of country kids; Galium aparine ‘cleaves’ to clothing and hair, hence the plant’s folk names ‘sticky billy,’ ‘gentleman’s tormentor’ and ‘sticky back’.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 26, 2023 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 26, 2023 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds