Inhospitable

The corn looked white in the sun and the soil is hard as stone. There are great fissures in some places where the earth has fractured in the dry heat.

Clare's wildlife camera captured images of a badger in her chicken coop. It killed five of her hens. She said the animal looked dreadful. Worms in these conditions estivate deep in the soil. What is there to eat? No berries yet.

I ran through wheat, glad that there was a breeze.

Someone I met said that if agricultural land offered more for wildlife––more hedgerows, uncultivated patches and so on, deer populations in woodlands would not be so dense. I know that this land is less hospitable than some, but seen in this condition, you wonder who can survive.

As I ran down this track, larks and yellowhammers flew out of the crop. They do make homes here.

And some rather pretty plants keep on growing despite the drought.