The field was dotted with them,
Hay bales stacked high on high
With field mice and shrews making hay
Running and playing between the bales
And red kites circling overhead, waiting.
The June sun shone down casting shadows.
A large oak tree accommodating all life,
Grubs and worms weaved between its roots
Ants, spiders and beetles made super
High roads along its trunk and branches.
Birds sang their song high on the bough
And squirrels passed each other along its trunk.
Willow trees lined the banks of the river
Separating fields either side of it.
The field across the river saw rabbits
Playing in the sun between rows of
Corn, leaping and dancing without worry.
Bulrushes and toad rush lined the edge
Of the river where coots, with their shiny
Black bodies and white foreheads
Swam with Mallard ducks and their young.
The water sparkling in the sunlight
As the river flows along towards the sea.
Farm workers returning after lunch with
A tractor and trailer start loading bales of hay
Laughing and joking as they worked.
Smoke from a cigarette wafted in the breeze
And noise from the tractor floated high in the air.
Nature in all its beauty filled the air, the fields
And river as life passed slowly by as it had done
For hundreds of years when men used Shire
Horses and four wheeled carts and mice and
Shrews played in the sun between hay stacks.
The beauty of the countryside forever unchanging.
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