‘England’s green and pleasant land’ – William Blake (‘Jerusalem’ 1804)
I have arrived back from South Africa to be overwhelmed, once again, by the incredible beauty of England in the merry month of May. This is when she shows herself best, I feel. Happy to have missed what the freebie London newspaper called, ‘the wettest, coldest spring since 1921’, I am hoping that I’ve tumbled into a fabulous summer. I just can’t get over how ridiculously green everything is.
In one 27hour period, I drove from Oxfordshire to Surrey, was then driven down to Eastbourne and back to Surrey, and then drove back to Oxfordshire. The whole trip was no ordeal at all. True, I twice chose to drive after 7pm, and it’s amazing what a difference that makes, but the whole thing was an absolute pleasure.
The unrelenting views of green fields, hedgerows peppered with exuberant hawthorn blossom, and exceptionally verdant cow parsley (Queen Anne’s lace still sounds so much nicer for you Little Grey Rabbit fans), demonstrated the sort of uncurated beauty that could make you cry – if you weren’t concentrating on the road, of course. It had me reaching for words like ‘bucolic’, which are not in my usual descriptive lexicon.
There are always things to grumble about, wherever you live. A report has just come out in South Africa which discovered that 81% of ten year-olds cannot read with understanding. This sets them back to the point that they will not only be unemployed, but unemployable. The power outages (load shedding) have increased, as I noted in my previous blog, which is not only a nightmare for residents, but a great disincentive for businesses looking to invest. A recent four-part investigative documentary by Al Jazeera, The Gold Mafia, exposed a massive money laundering scheme which implicates a number of people-who-should-know-better in both the ZA & Zimbabwe governments.
The potholes there are now at about the same level of disintegration as the ones in the UK, but the contrast between life north and south of the equator never fails to bemuse me. News from the BBC App doesn’t reveal much worth celebrating either. However, the English countryside in spring is well worth travelling 6,000 miles to see.
Although we have other trips planned before returning south in September, I’m hoping for a long, hot summer here during which my eyes will continue to feast on what can only be called, lush countryside. I may have missed the primroses and bluebells, but the foxgloves and sweet peas will be along soon.
I’m also hoping to shed a few pounds as I get back to walking through nature’s paradise, rationing my time on social media, overseeing the publication of my new book: Charlie Peach’s Pumpkins and other stories, and regrouping for the days ahead. When I can’t be in the middle of a field somewhere, I hope to at least be able to see the many shades of green from a window somewhere. It’s good for the soul; try it.
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