Friday, February 22, 2008

Column Week 3


©Anita Davies

This is my third column entry in The Cambs Times and Wisbech Standard, in print today. I have scanned it for you directly from the paper, clicking on the image will enlarge it but in case you still have difficulty with the text size, it reads as follows:

'My life beats along to the sound of birds whistling and the dull drumming of tractors carving their deep grooves into the flat fields. My views span for miles and when the sun sets it creates, what can only be described as, art upon the huge sky that consumes over two thirds of the landscape around me. At night it turns the deepest of blacks and fills with the brightest stars, like diamonds scattered over the finest black silk, the air still...silent....with only the flash of an owls wings for company.
There is a true sense of freedom here, no obstructions in view, a place to stretch, to reach, to breathe...to dream!
Winter brings with it cutting winds that test the oldest of trees and structures.. As well as ones sanity. The days pass too quickly and, at the same time, the months seem never ending. Darkness shrouds each passing hour and daylight becomes the butterfly you chase but cannot seem to net.
A full calendar, a real Summer, Spring, Autumn and Winter where the ground changes, the skies rage and the climate informs you of the earths natural transitions. A place where you can judge the month by the machinery in the fields and the wildlife's activities.
On first sight, one may see the fens as nothing more than a palette of brown, blue and green, flat, unattractive...boring? I have had the luxury of being able to look more than once upon this wonderful landscape and with each cast of my eye I find another reason to fall in love with it.'

9 comments:

Sandy said...

So serene and lovely in word and sketch, I love reading this along with the actual paper subscribers.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

I have one word for your third column - BEAUTIFUL. Your language brought tears to my eyes. Unless one lived here among the fields like you do, no one could really understand their meaning... but you give us a taste of Fenland nature in the raw.

Margaret Ann said...

Okay...now you've done it...goose bumps and all. Refreshing, renewing and reflective!

Although I have never been to the fens, the loving descriptions you illustrated so beautifully in words remind me of back "home" in northern Illnois-the vastness of the sky, the rich earthiness of the soil, and the full cirle of life measured magically by nature. You can only imagine how much more dear to my heart your postcard is to me now...a gift beyond measure.

Anonymous said...

I have family in Nebraska which is also very flat...this reminds me of all the great times I had on Aunt Elsye's farm.....;)

Anonymous said...

ooops...that was from me...deni..;)

Anonymous said...

loved the talk loved the drawing...lovely as usual

Joan said...

Beautiful words and sketch!! You can tell you love the area!

Anita Davies said...

So pleased you are enjoying it Sandy!

Awww, thanks Joannie!

LOL @ Goose bumps! Thankyou Margaret. I knew my intention of your postcard before I sent it and some how I thought you would get a kick out of owning a picture used in my column...Thrilled I was right because now I KNOW you are going to love he pay it forward treat I have planned for you!

Aunt Elsys's farm sounds so quaint Deni, glad to have brought happy memories back for you.

Thanks Maggie.

Thanks Joan. The Fens grow on you a little like ivy on a building and, before long, it's roots are entwined around your heart!

Serena Lewis said...

Another wonderful column....beautifully written and illustrated ~