Tuesday 28 February 2006

The Lowest of the Low !

                                            

Good morning ,a lovely sunny day again ,and yes its still very cold .After yesterdays entry ,I thought we'd come nearer home today ,or more correctly Holme ,I found this article in the local paper,and since it was of interest Idecided to share it with you .

 

I hope you were able to read that! so its now official ,we in this area are the lowest of the low ! Maurice and I plan to ride out and look for the posts ,its only a couple of miles from here ,give or take !! Although the Fens are on first sight a vista of flat nothing much ,there is so much more happening here than first meets the eye ,at the moment as the ground is being ploughed and readied for the crops ,the soil is a rich black colour ,but is capable of surprising the plough man ,and costing the farmer! a series of jagged stumps rise up from the black peat soil like a forest of ghosts ! and indeed in some ways that is exactly what they are,these wierd objects are Bog Oaks ! and until they are uncovered by the plough have lain uncovered for thousands of years .They were once part of thick blankets of Oak forests which covered this part of the country until the land began to flood.Large shallow lakes formed when the rivers Nene ,Ouse and Welland began to silt up with tidal sands trapping the water inland ,the Oak trees couldnt survive with their roots rotting away  trapped in water so eventually they fell down over the water,over the years layers of dead reeds and other plant materials gathered on top of the wood to form peat,this acted as a natural preservative around the trees because their was no oxygen to rot the wood .So now,some six thousand years later the local farmers are regularly digging up Bog Oaks as they til the fields around the area ,apparently trip beams are used on the machinery,to let the plough man know whenhe comes across one ,they can be dug up later ,the peat is shrinking all the time and that is why the Oaks keep appearing ...........I hope I havent bored you to much with some local History /Geography . 

            AND LOVE FROM Jan xxxx   

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cold and sunny here as well, today. Thanks for sharing this, found it very interesting. Looking forward to seeing your photo's of the area.       ~Deborah

Anonymous said...

Very interesting, Jan.  I hope the project is successful!
~~Kath~~

Anonymous said...

no you haven't bored me at all. I find it very interesting. What do the farmers grow in that rich soil? Sandra

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the History Lesson!
Aileen....X

Anonymous said...

Thanks for another interesting post Jan.  You tell us things that we probably would never even hear if we came to England on a holiday.  Linda in Washington state

Anonymous said...

Far from boring  it is really interesting he said sitting 1,000 ft above sea level.

Anonymous said...

That was very interesting and not boring at all. Love your grapics today. I love butterflies. Helen

Anonymous said...

Oooh bog oaks, they have gorgeous dark almost ebony wood.  Be nice to see them.  That's an interesting bit of information you've shared Jan, thank you. Rache xx

Anonymous said...

That was not boring at all ~ a really good read ~ Looking forward to seeing your pics of them when you go ~  Ally

Anonymous said...

Very interesting artical in the newspaper we are mambers of the Norfolk Wildlife trust and we read about this sort of thing in their mags from time to time. LOve Joan.

Anonymous said...

Cooeee, I am here as promised!!! I love the butterflies, especially the opening graphic one....hopefully the wildlife will return to the wetland, we are losing too much!

Anonymous said...

That's interesting :-)  Thanks for sharing xx

Anonymous said...

Hello Jan

What a lovely entry, and how very interesting ..... i don't know much about your part of the country so it was really nice to read your journal today - thank you.
Jayne x

Anonymous said...

Very interesting article. Thank you for sharing it. Paula

Anonymous said...

Like everyone has said that is interesting ,Pete said he too would like to see the markers or posts.You have that lovely dark soil out that way too. Nice Butterfly.....Love Jeanxx

Anonymous said...

Well this was something I did not know.  Thanks for sharing Jan xxxx

http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/

Anonymous said...

Boring pah!!!! it was extremely interesting and thank you for posting it :o)  Caff xxx