A LIGHTER NOTE, your first passion for our beautiful country side ?

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, getting away from the doom and gloom of politics etc etc etc, i often see PW members posts saying not much shooting or fish caught but it was so good to get out into the fields, woods, dales,by river/lake side got me thinking as to when i realised as a we nipper the beauty of our countryside for me west sussex, born 1949 in the local cottage hospital of a then small town called Midhurst, our house was on top of a hill with a view to die for and i use to stand on the fence at 4 or 5 and 6 and see 1000s of acres of un spoiled countryside of meadows/woods/ and hear many of our birds now in decline, watch the farmers and their new now vintage tractors with plough, old seeders/ threshing machines sorting seed from stalk leaving the stooks and i use to visit a small farm run by a lovely elderly couple who milked by hand a dozen cows, gave me a cup to drink as i watched, sadly the view has gone from that back garden and the farm to concrete/bricks and mortar, but i still have that passion after 60 plus years, ps sorry for the nostalgic trip

[Scully]

Have so many nostalgic memories of the countryside as a young lad I couldn't really single any one particular moment.

I grew up ( and am still there) at the foot of the Pennines on one side and just thirteen miles west, the gateway to the Lakes. It doesn't get much better.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Scully

[Davyo]

Too many to think of,fondest memories are of camping as child in the lake district.Im now 54 but yesterday I took my son Ben who is 11 cycling.We cycled down to the coast and sat on the beach banks.I got a strong waft of (Strong Coconut) from the Course bushes in full yellow flowers.God I was 14 again birdnesting on Beckon Hill running amongst this stuff.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Davyo

[besty57]

My first memory .my granny&granda lived in farm cottages ,

At that time owned by the squire,out of the front room window you could see the vegetable patch and beyond fields,with loads of sheep.me and my sister used to wander round the farmyard I loved It, It was like another world.so peaceful.I go back now and again and nothing's really changed apart from more traffic,and most of the cottages are now second homes.

Writing this with a lump in the throat,

If only you could turn back time,

[Mice!]

Old pigeon popper, don't be sorry you paint a lovely picture.

 

Thinking back I lived by a park with coal land over the other side of road and both sets of grand parents a half hour drive away in what always seemed perfect Countryside, lots of bird song trees open land to wander and "what's round that corner" thank my dad for that one ☺

[old man]

Oldy, I first thought you said first passion in our countryside, too old to remember that.

[Walker570]

My first real memory of my early years was being carried into a concrete roofed shelter in a corner between our farm workshop and a boundary wall. My father was on a two day leave from his job in the RAF as an engine fitter working on Merlins, keeping the braver guys in the air. He stood at the door and a droning sound of aircraft engines got louder but my dad said, No worries, it's one of ours, I know that engine sound anywhere". Followed by a whistling sound and the whole structure shook as a string of bombs got laid across the fields between us and the main railway line from Rugby to Crewe. They missed their intended target, search lights half a mile away, but left four or five superb duck ponds for me to enjoy seven or eight years later. I was born and raised on what was a fairly large farm back then 220 acres, mixed dairy and corn and potatoes, with mangels and swedes to feed the cows. We had two Shire horses then but soon got a Fordson tractor, the a bigger better one with magical hydraulic links on the back. My uncle farmed next door and I had free run of his place making about 360 acres total. Grey partridges were more common than woodpigeons back then and my grandfather held two formal shoots a year. I was at his heels every minute of the day and he taught me how to 'harvest' the countryside with catapult, air rifle, eventually shotgun and 22RF. The steep bank we as kids used as a sledging run is now bricks and concrete. The snipe bogs are drained and all the hedges pulled out to make one 200 acre field. Progress they call it, I'm led to believe.

[oldypigeonpopper]

Oldy, I first thought you said first passion in our countryside, too old to remember that.

now that would be telling

[fortune]

When I was a kid abour this time of year I remember Mum and my sisters going to the woods and picking​ dozens and dozens of bunches of primroses to send off to a florist. The primroses were put in a large China bowl/tray. There were so many primroses that the woods were like a yellow carpet. Back in those days there were loads of rabbits and I think that their droppings fertilised the primroses because after myxy they started to get less. The picking of mushrooms in the fields was another thing that I remember and the competition between those in the know about getting out in the fields at first light to pick as many as possible. Again the excess was sold off in the village greengrocers. Some of these Places are still exactly the same but when I drive through the village in which I grew up in it looks so different in its size and the garages, pubs and all of the shops are all gone. probably the majority of the people who were parents of school mates are dead and gone. The village seems to have lost its soul. It is just a domitary rather than a community. Back when I was a kid the village policeman spent most of his time shooting, ferreting and in either the butchers or one of the pubs, in uniform. There were no mobiles and if anyone asked where he was he was out on patrol. he was on a pushbike out on patrol but he knew exactly what was going on, on his patch.

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, thankyou for posting such good memories of your early years it just goes to show i am not the only one who can still remember those good times. cheers

Edited April 19, 2017 by oldypigeonpopper