Pleasure in a feather!
- Posted on 2nd July, 07
- in At Home
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On another topic - which also coincides with dog walking (her name is Floss by the way!) I stumbled upon a pheasant tail feather… It just made me think how lucky I was to grow up in the country, and how lucky I was to have Dad to teach me all sorts of things when I was little. There have been a few times whilst out in the country recently where I’ve seen something and made a connection from my childhood. It’s that funny feeling of just knowing that you know something, but you’re not really sure where it’s come from. Then you re-connect the neurones in your brain and realise that you’ve not thought about that since you were young; It’s been a good 14 years since I roamed the hills with Mac.
Oak apples and Cuckoo spit - two items from past! I knew somehow that every oak apple had a hole in it - which is the hole left after an insect has bored its way out! I did a bit of research and found out that it’s the larvae of the Gall Wasp, which works it’s way out in June or July. The larvae actually creates the gall itself which is pretty fascinating!
The other thing that I remembered was that the little balls of spit that you find on the grass in farmland have a little bug in them. When I looked I found that I was right and there was a little green bug in there… On further investigation I discovered that it’s an insect called a froghopper, it sucks the sap out of the plant and creates a bundle of something which looks like spit all around it. The idea is that it protects it from predators… and is nothing - oddly enough - to do with Cuckoo’s.
It is something you take for granted, a rural upbringing, and I suppose somebody who spends so much time answering the call of the sea has to re-connect with the land to some degree from time to time.
Working on a Science program for kids this summer I see first hand the increasingly urban nature of a child’s upbringing in this country, as more and more land is given over to development and kids spend more time in front of tv and computer screens. As we gathered in the countryside to talk about reservoirs and springs, a Red Kite swooped low over our heads causing one of the kids to proclaim “It’s a vulture!”
I think they found it more exciting than the lecture on groundwater