I've not been out to the fields since I hurt myself a week ago falling off my bike. I've spent the time since then slapping antiseptic and sticky dressings on my knee, palms and elbow and trying to get a little flexibility back into my wrist. My knee is still painful but this evening I was so beside myself with restless, furious cabin-fever that I snatched up my gun and army jacket and set out anyway.I took a few pictures of the motorway, climbed a stile into the fields, dodged a herd of over-curious cows - and then spent a beautiful couple of hours reacquainting myself with this place that, to my surprise, I find I've so keenly missed.
Paths that I walked every day and swiped clear with my knife are now darned across with thick ropes of new bramble; the summer growth has been so strong that I twice came into clearings and was each time startled, for a moment, at not recognising places that I know like my own home; fields that were waist high are now mown into lawns; fields that were flat are now knee-high tangles of dandelion and lush, green grass. Can it only have been a week?
I flopped on the ground - not caring that I'd frightened every rabbit for a hundred yards - and just lay there with my chin propped on my rifle butt, drinking in the setting sun, the view of the fields and the peace.
I came home - darkness falling - empty handed, caring not a damn.
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..."I flopped on the ground - not caring that I'd frightened every rabbit for a hundred yards - and just lay there with my chin propped on my rifle butt, drinking in the setting sun, the view of the fields and the peace."...
ReplyDeleteSometimes that is all hunting is about, just getting out there letting your spirit rejoice, surrounded by something as awesome and magnificent as creation itself.
sounds perfect
ReplyDeleteSounds like home - glad you got back to it!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful experience. I like that you enjoy the hunt whether you bag anything or not.
ReplyDeleteraining, nothing good on T.V. silly season in the news, no 'Rabbit Stew' good job i have got a good book to read!
ReplyDeletehave the rabbits gone away there's plenty here in Wilts come this way!!!
Hey SDH,
ReplyDeleteYep, sorry, not much rabbit hunting going on. I think I broke my wrist - rather than just pranging it - so it's taking a while to heal. Also, I'm in Bristol at the moment trying to find a job and somewhere to live rather than hanging around near the fields at home. Maybe I'll be moving back to the big city? That's the plan right now - but who knows!
HH!
I'm sorry to read about your wrist, hope you get it fixed soon. I'm reading your blog for some time now and though I always enjoyed your hunting related post, I really was impressed by your writings on society, poverty and unemployment. I know it is no fun to type single handed but I really would like to read about your experiences in job hunting.
ReplyDeleteGet well soon, Christian
Sorry to hear about the wrist - hope it heals cleanly and smoothly. Good luck with the job hunt, and the hunt for a place to live! If you do move, do you have any plans to continue hunting on the weekends or holidays?
ReplyDeleteVery sorry to hear about the wrist, there's been a lot of it about ;)
ReplyDeleteSBW
Hubert Hubert, long time no hear - what's going on these days? How are you doing?
ReplyDeleteHiya NorCal Cazadora (and SBW and Wing and a Whim and Christian Trapp!),
ReplyDeleteI'm still taking a break smack in the middle of the big city of Bristol - watching the clouds and rain roll across the town from a high room in a house atop one of the tallest hills in the city.
My wrist is still knackered. I've certainly broken a bone in the damn thing, but I think it's healing slowly. I've got to find one of those metal wrist braces to wear for a couple of weeks I thing. The thing that hurts the most is washing my face for some reason - so I'm tempted to have a dirty protest about having hurt myself.
I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do next, to be honest. The small town where I've done all the hunting has been home for the last two years but I do need to find some way back into the world of work and other people since - pleasant as doing nothing (literally nothing) other than hunt, shoot and eat rabbit for six months has been - I've been going a bit crazy as well as getting seriously skint. Hunting rabbits is a lot of fun but I do, I find, also need company, work, other people and the world a little bit as well - and that may well mean moving to this city where I've been staying for the last two weeks.
It's a bit of a 'period of transition', for 'Hubert' then!
So - long shot time on the shooting blog - if anyone in Bristol wants to swap their housing association flat for mine in the West Midlands...well then, that'd be great!!! Also, if anyone near Bristol knows of a landowner that would give me permission to shoot on their land...well, that'd be great too!
Maybe I can somehow figure out how to be an urbanite who also goes hunting?
Cheers all,
HH