Leicestershire v Essex ‘Eagles’, CB40, Grace Road, Monday 8th May Abandoned without a ball being bowled On Monday, a good-humoured crowd were in Bank Holiday mood (and we all know what that’s like!) for the Foxes’ second game in this year’s CB40 competition. Many of them had travelled far from the gaudy connurbations and spooky mudflats [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Spring’
Immersion Edition : Leicestershire v Essex
Posted in Cricket, Flowers, Nature, Sport, tagged Blotters, Cricket, Essex County Cricket Club, Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Rain, Roses, Spring on May 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The British Character : Has It Changed? #5 Extraordinary Propensity Of The Farmers To Grumble
Posted in Arts, Cartoons, This England, tagged Cartoons, Farming, Pont, Rain, Spring on May 2, 2012 | 2 Comments »
I saw scenes very like this from the train yesterday morning, as I was passing over the Great Ouse near Bedford – though I don’t think any of the animals were actually dead.
Stump Watch For April 2012
Posted in Nature, Trees, tagged Little Bowden, Rain, Spring, Stump Watch, Trees on April 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
To see out this frankly dismal month, here is April’s Stump Watch (a distant view, this time). In the far background, you can just make out South Harborough CC’s groundsman contemplating turning his pitch into something more appropriate – like a duck racing arena.
Making Hay While The Sun Don’t Shine (Northants v Kent & Leicestershire v Loughborough MCCU)
Posted in Cricket, Sport, tagged Cricket, Kent County Cricket Club, Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Loughborough MCCU, Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, Ronnie Sarwan, Spring on April 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Northamptonshire v Kent, County Ground, County Championship, 12th April Leicestershire v Loughborough MCCU, Loughborough, 14th April Well, here we are on the 15th of April with – for most counties – a ninth of the County Championship over already. By the end of May half of it will be gone. I had been a little concerned that [...]
Stump Watch March 2012 : The Stump They Could Not Kill
Posted in Nature, Trees, tagged Little Bowden, Spring, Stump Watch, Trees on March 31, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Last day of the month, so it’s time for the usual visit to the Stump. “Not looking good” – you say - ”Finito, Caput, an ex-Stump?”. Well, at first sight, yes. but look a little closer, and – Stump, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability, and I want you to know that we are [...]
On Seeing The First Cricket Of Spring
Posted in Cricket, Football, Sport, tagged Cricket, Football, Northamptonshire, Rothwell, Rothwell Corinthians F.C., Spring on March 11, 2012 | 1 Comment »
To Rothwell again yesterday to watch Rothwell Corinthians win a hard-fought tussle against Burton Park Wanderers. The Corinthians’ ground (Sergeant’s Field) shares a boundary with the ground of Rothwell C.C., and all afternoon I was distracted and bewitched by the sound of a motor mower mowing the outfield and the scent of new-mown grass. “Come you [...]
Ornithology With Orwell
Posted in Birds, Nature, Trains, Trees, tagged Birds, City of London, George Orwell, Magpies, Nest Watch, Spring, Trees on February 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Older readers may remember the feature Nest Watch, which appeared on this blog in March of last year. In it, I observed a pair of magpies painstakingly dismantling an old nest (or, as a reader suggested, a squirrel’s dray) and reassembling it into a new nest higher up the tree. At about the time the nest [...]
A.E. Stoddart : Son of Grief?
Posted in Arts, Cricket, Poetry, Sport, tagged A.E. Housman, A.E. Stoddart, Cricket, Melancholy, Poetry, Spring on May 22, 2011 | 6 Comments »
A timely Maytime poem by A.E. Housman, from A Shropshire Lad. The relationship between cricket and melancholy is, I think, a complex one, but this is one side to it. Twice a week the winter thorough Here stood I to keep the goal: Football then was fighting sorrow For the young man’s soul. Now [...]
Empty Nest Syndrome (with Louis MacNiece)
Posted in Animals, Arts, Birds, Nature, Poetry, Trees, tagged Birds, City of London, Louis MacNiece, Nest Watch, Poetry, Spring, Trees on May 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
What of the nest? The nest itself is now harder to see through the fresh green leaves – and, since the incident with the crows, I’ve only seen the magpies once more. Perhaps they are lying low and incubating their eggs, or perhaps they’ve been reading Louis MacNiece – In a between world, a world [...]
Rosy Showers Shed : Helen Hunt Jackson on May
Posted in Arts, Cricket, Flowers, Nature, Poetry, Sport, tagged Cricket, Helen Hunt Jackson, Little Bowden, Market Harborough, Poetry, Spring on May 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Helen Hunt Jackson’s thoughts on the month of May (one of her best, I think). “Sacred month unto the old” refers to Ovid’s belief that May was sacred to the “maiores” – the elders – rather than the usual suggestion of Maia (a fertility goddess). May O month when they who love must love and [...]
