Mama Beech

So, after a rather warm night's sleep in the centre of town (ear plugs are a brilliant invention!), a deliberately tepid shower, and a hearty breakfast, today its the ferry! I'm used to either a very small 'foot ferry' akin to the one that goes from Lymington to Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight, or the huge vessels you drive on to. Today is something in between. It's a passenger ferry, no vehicles, just people, and it's a glorious day for it! The sun is out, it's not as hot as yesterday, and the breeze is cooling without churning the sea into a wild ride! It's not a boating lake either! This is the Atlantic, where the Channel flows in at the South and the Irish Sea seeps down from the North. Think of pirates and shipwrecks and Cornish legends!   Penzance port has a great view of St. Michael's Mount, and the town. The sky and sea are blue and calm. It takes a while to drift past the Cirnish Coast, but eventually Lands End is rising from the sea and we t...

Mama Beech is standing tall. A bit crispy around the edges, desperate for a drink, could definitely do with a shower, and is probably crestfallen that she's overlooking a parched golden field or two. We need rain.  We need it badly.  I've not been along to view the dying grass, withered leaves, and blackberries baked onto the brambles at Forest School. I cannot water anything even if I go and look, so right now the fate of over 1000 baby trees planted over the last 3 years is totally unknown... and frequently worried over.  Currently, I'm speeding through the English countryside, on a slightly too warm train that has to keep slowing because the heat is adversely affecting the tracks. On both sides the windows reveal what at first looks like endless fields of golden wheat, there is no break in the rolling hills: yellow, gold, and amber repeat and dominate, even in the meadows. Hay bales are wrapped and scattered, sheep are shorne, cows are huddling beneath trees and chewin...