Summertime and the living is easy

As we climbed the hill behind our house the surroundings became quieter and quieter, just the sounds of the children laughing and the wind dancing in the trees. We often walk the dog through the fields and woodlands behind our house, there is a quarry complete with nesting peregrine falcons that you often hear screeching and they can be seen soaring on the thermals looking out for their lunch. If we follow the path it leads you on a winding adventure through  a thicket of ancient trees, brambles and wild flowers, the sun flickers through the canopy of green, lighting up trails of magic encouraging us to look for evidence of fairies and other woodland creatures. The  age old trees provide perfect doorways and sanctuaries through their roots for all types of tiny mythical creatures. Of course we have never found any fairies and after fruitless searching we move onto to where the track leads us through rock that had been dynamited many years ago to provide a through way for lime to be transported to the kilns. Here the children can climb the lower rock faces and climbers often can be seen climbing and abseiling the towering cliff faces that we wander through following the path to where it forks, the right fork would take us through fields to the next village the left takes us homeward bound.

When the dancing wind lulled we could hear the grasshoppers chattering in the hedgerows, child 2 knelt down to hunt for them and found that if you sit quiet and still you can see where they are by watching the blades of grass move. We sat for ages watching these tiny creatures hop, skip and jump amongst the grasses. Until child 3 found crowds of cabbage white and red admiral butterflies feeding on a purple buddleja. She stood holding her hand out waiting for the to alight on her outstretched fingers for ages. Standing still and silent waiting patiently for just one to settle, once one had she would call in delight then wait again for the next one.

Eventually we started our homeward journey, enjoying the quiet and the magic of a summers afternoon, planning the fairy house and garden in the roots of our apple tree, watching out for more mini beasts in the hedgerows that edge the road home and recognising the friendship and love of family for those few moments before the bickering begins again.....