On a different tack I have noticed that the grass around the river banks is often streaked with a silvery deposit. I have worked out that this is heron poo. As they take flight from a morning's fishing they almost always emit a long streak of sparkling deposit. On closer inspection the poo is entirely composed of fish scales which contrasts vividly with the lush green grass.
The herons are numerous on the River Coln and they have been joined recently by their cousins the egrets. They are small, white herons which I think originate in the Med' and the Middle East. Apparently they started colonising these islands in 1986 and have bred successfully since then. Being a non-native {I can't spell indigenous} species I wonder if they have had an adverse affect on any native species?
Anyway, I am trying to sell these toughened glass work top protectors at the moment with little success. They have a coloured drawing of a brown trout, which is indijinous, and one of a rainbow trout, which is non-endegenus, and the word 'Bibury' in the middle. I like them and will soon put them on the website [when I work out how to]. In the meantime if anyone wants one for a fiver then please email me.
'Silvery deposit' is a poetic name for such a substance. Bet it looks beautiful on a morning when the sunshine is piercing the mist. Quite magical in fact.
ReplyDeleteDiscovering Bibury during my recent trip to the quintessential English countryside was more than memorable, indeed moving. While there, I discovered that Hirohito, the Emperor of Japan 1926-89, visited the village, perhaps more than once. I also discovered that many Japanese tourists visit the rustic village. I was born and bred in Japan, although have lived in the US since high school. Boston, my adopted hometown, shares many in common with this area of UK, but there is something special about Bibury. I wonder why so many Japanese find Bibury so attractive, inspiring. It may be the nostalgia for bucolic, rural life where life is gentle. Busy in urban life, many Japanese yearn to return to nature, where they restore goodness of life. The first Japanese Nobel laureate in literature, Kawabata Yasunari gave his Nobel lecture in 1968. Its title was "Japan the Beautiful and Myself." He attributed his literary sensibility to the beauty of Japanese rural life. Bibury perhaps reawakens nostalgia for the past, for nature, for simplicity....
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