Here is a dying art, not made ON wood but made FROM wood that has rotted and compacted to form peat bogs. This peat bog is walking distance from us and still being worked. Every cottage had its own plot of peat bog to cut and collect for winter fuel. When cut it is wet and moist, so heaped up to dry in the summer sun. It’s very pleasing and orderly in its arrangement, don’t you think, making useful order out of the day? There must be great satisfaction in that. You can see where they have sliced down layer by layer over the centuries. Europe want to outlaw this activity on environmental grounds but those still working the bogs say this activity IS the environment, a way of life that goes back centuries from economic necessity. Peat is not an efficient fuel, very dusty, but it is cheap and when burned it gives off a rich aromatic smell.
Europe only sees statistics. It doesnt see the rural socialising of a weekend where communities spend the day working the bog and sharing stories with their sandwiches and tea. It’s a rare sight these days...but there it is up the road from us, secretly hidden away from view.
cut like the lines on my wood paintings!
See tufty white plant called bog cotton
And
here is a secretive creature making a run for it through our garden
yesterday...a wild hare. Stunning.
These
things catch you unawares,
The peat bog cutters and the hares.
