I haven't got the brain power to bring you up to speed with everything that we have been doing here yesterday and today, but I have taken lots of photos, so I will get to sharing that soon. Suffice to say that I have been very active, busy and moved a lot of stuff onwards towards new ideas and projects - hurray!
So instead of telling you that tonight, I am going to share this photo and some thoughts about the area I live: the Fens. The EFG took that photo last Thursday night on our way home from the Slimming World meeting, and it was about 6pm. This is a typical scene around here at the moment - windmills in the background, and a field of pongy oil seed rape - I have to wind my windows up sharpish whenever I drive past a field of this stuff or else I start to sneeze! What the photo doesn't show is the other typical Fen feature, which is a "drain" or river channel, which is right at the front of the picture, and the light green grass is the river bank.
Sometimes, when I am driving in the Fens, I can see for miles, and it reminds me of "Little House on the Prairie" from my childhood, when all you could see in the shots of the family on the covered wagon was grasslands for miles and miles - here it is fields for miles, flat and green or brown depending on whether it has just been ploughed or has a crop already growing. The land around here is Flat. Flat is the word for it - there is so much sky: the EFG criticised my photo above when I took it, saying that there was too much sky in the shot, but I replied that that was the point - the Fens are full of Sky!
Do I like living here, you might ask? Well, yes, I suppose I do: I have got used to it now. It was a terrible change when I first came to the Fens from Fife, and it felt too wide open, too much sky, and not enough trees! I didn't like it then, but it's OK now. The sunsets are amazing sometimes, and it is lovely to be able to see so far on a clear day. I do miss the hills now and again, though. I am not a Fenlander, though, and the locals don't let you forget, in a kind sort of way - there is still a "them and us" feeling in the village but not in a bad way. There is recognition that some people are incomers and others are from village families which have been here for generations, but mostly, the village families are tolerant of the incomers to liven things up a little and bring some new ideas. Those who come in and join in are welcomed more than those who come but remain apart!
Thoughts for the day are for the child who fell out of a coach on the A47 near King's Lynn yesterday and who is very ill in hospital and for the family of the man who died after completing the London Marathon yesterday.
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6 comments:
When we moved from Scotland we first moved to the West Country and then to Oxfordshire. The next move was to East Midlands, only half an hour from the Fens. The first time we drove to the Fens, I absolutely hated it. I thought it was a bit scary but we got used to it and began to enjoy the space. And once you've driven over the Fens and come out in Norfolk, that's a beautiful area worth visiting. When we lived in the South, people would tell me that when they visited Scotland, they would feel frightened by the hills.
Sending hugs and hopes you are looking after yourself. WS xxx
@Sybil - thank you xx
@SusanM - see, I'm sad ;) I just have to see a mountain and I have a silly grin all over my face for hours! No fear there whatsoever...
And you are right about Norfolk - when we first came here and I had to go into Norfolk for any reason, I would relish the greenery - the hedges especially as we don't really do hedges along the roadside in the Fens because we have all the ditches instead!
Are you from Scotland originally? I remember the drainage ditches in the Fens and the huge fields. I loved Norfolk and it was worth travelling the distance to get to the greenery and the beaches. Gosh, I used to get so homesick sometimes. After my husband had been very ill and had to give up work, we just put the house on the market and moved back up the road x
@SusanM - no, I am from about 25 miles south of where I live now, not quite in the Fens but not too far away. Childhood holidays in Scotland every October half term made me determined to live in Scotland and I applied to 4 Scottish universities on my UCCA form [and only 1 English one, but that was Lancaster, so heading northwards!]. I went to St Andrews and stayed in Fife for almost 10 years. My children were born in Fife, and obviously it has all rubbed off on the EFG with her Aberdeen aims!
I agree its all sky in the fens. I just went to tuck the dog up for the night and the full moon was beautiful and low. I've lived here all my life and can't imagine anywhere more desolate and yet beautiful:)
Mo x
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