Thursday, June 05, 2003

 

Day 42. Friday 06 June 2003.

This evening we met Sandra and Bernard Airey for an evening meal at the Heron Hill Hotel. Heron Hill was a modern suburb of Kendal and the "in" place to build when we livid in Kendal in the early 1940s, a nice area. The Hotel was relatively new and reminded me much of a typical NZ Motor Hotel set in its own grounds with lots of shrubs planted around.

Pat and Sandra talked of times both old and new; they first met and became friends as young teenagers when working for the telephone exchange in Kendal subsequently holidaying together.

I really first met Bernard when Pat and I married, Sandra was Pat's bridesmaid. I always found him pleasant and friendly and interesting to talk to. Bernard's interests lay outdoors, gardening, fishing, hunting, I think and as we talked I posed him a question. Why were there now so many nettles in the British Isles and unkempt hedgerows? In the 1940s and 1950s hedges and grass verges were neat and tidy, the verges regularly trimmed and most farmers and local authorities kept the insidious nettles in check by cutting them. I thought if anyone could satisfy my curiosity, it would be Bernard.

He thought for a moment, probably thinking the question a little strange. He then proceeded to tell me the story. Apparently as towns and cities encroached more and more on the countryside, more intensive farming, more people enjoying the countryside, farmers removing hedges for bigger fields, more roading and vehicle increase the environment was suffering. As the years, decades passed once common insects, animals, plants and bird life were decreasing in numbers, in fact in some cases becoming scarce or approaching extinction. It was suggested local authorities leave the undergrowth of hedge rows on roadsides were left untended and farmers paid an allowance to do likewise where possible. Any vacant ground in the countryside and along waterways is left to naturalise.

By these "roads" of vegetation flora and fauna could breed undisturbed and travel from area to area more easily and so hopefully multiply and repopulate the countryside.

This is a simplistic explanation but it illustrates what was involved to protect nature and satisfy my curiosity particularly to a well-remembered smell of nettle pollen permeating the air as I walked in various places.

Back to Bernard and Sandra. We left the Heron Hill Hotel and had coffee at their nearby home and meeting one of their daughters. Before we left the hotel I got up to pay the bill for our meal. During our 2000 visit Bernard had insisted he pay for our treat then. But Bernard unbeknown to me had again circumvented me by going to the toilet and settling the bill at the same time!

We returned to Olive Knowles' B & B pleasantly tired out and ready for sleep.

posted by OldEric 7:25 pm