Notes from the country with Vicky Turrell

  What was that? We were driving back home from East Yorkshire when we saw it. We were on the Shropshire border where you see all types of wildlife. Sadly, some are in great danger, I am seeing a lot more badgers, hedgehogs and strangely squirrels on the road. I suppose they have had a hard time in the extreme hot weather but are out hunting for food now that it is a little cooler. What we saw this time on the road was something very different. It was a fish. Quite a big fish. I looked around. There were no lakes, no rivers and well, no water at all. Where had this fish on the road come from? Had it fallen off a seafood transporter? Had it fallen from an osprey’s talons? It is a mystery. There was a mystery for me too when I first went to school. You see, everyone at home had always called me Vicky. But when I was five and about to start school, my dad sat me down to tell me that my real name was Victoria. I cried. My life was changing from playing on our farm every day to having...

  Where has it gone? At first, I could not wait to get rid of it. Now it only makes the occasional visit. And I know this might seem strange after all the complaining and longing for rain, but I quite miss the sun’s constant comforting warmth. With breakfast on the patio, bare feet and a silky shift dress we had every excuse for loafing about all day trying to keep cool. And it is not just the heat; the light seems to have gone as well. It has all happened so quickly something has sneaked in on me from behind closing the curtains and turning the heating off. We are all in search of our long-discarded jumpers and jackets. On the brighter side our surviving sapling trees cannot believe their luck after three months of hanging on every night until we came with the watering can, they are happily putting on new fresh green growth with a sigh of relief. I wonder if some parents are giving a sigh of relief now that school is back. Some of my friends have been busy for a few weeks ge...

  ‘The train now standing…’ except that the train was not standing. It was late. Delayed behind other delayed trains. We were going to the Edinburgh Fringe. I have always wanted to go to The Fringe and I thought that I had better hurry up and go as time is getting on. The train appeared eventually but then as we were hurrying along it came to a full stop. A train ahead had broken down and had to be pulled way. There was a little family opposite me. A new mother, a first-time grand mother and baby Lucas. The staff were attentive and the food was good. We settled down to wait. Lucas’s family men had gone up to Scotland in the car to take all the baby gear. They had begun by having bets as to who would arrive first. Car or train? We waited and the news came by text that the car was already at the accommodation, the car had won. Baby Lucas began to cry but soon we were on our way too, snaking through the lush green fields and rushing rivers. We hardly dare think of the dry desert...

    ‘I go to market and I ask about the fish: they say it’s expensive. The lamb, the beef and the pork are all expensive…’. I would never have guessed how old this quote was, it seems to be so modern. It could be me talking about the fish stall or the butchers. The difference is that the quote goes on to say that the buyer has no money at all, he was probably a slave. Another difference is that it was written around 200 BC. I was at the Roman ruined city of Uriconium in Shropshire. I was learning once more about how different their lives were but also how similar they were to ours. I wonder if they had scams like us? Certainly not mobile phone scams. I was just setting off for a meeting with my fellow writers last week when my phone pinged. It was supposedly from a delivery firm. I was still in our drive, so I opened the message. There was a delivery due they said (that was not true I had not ordered anything) but just so the driver had got my details correct, could I fi...

  ‘BUZZ, BUZZZ, BUZZZZ…’ What on earth was that? We were settling down for a cup of tea after dinner when we heard it. Then there it was again, and again the whole of our garden room was alive. I searched the house and the noise stopped. Of course it was the Government Emergency Alert. ‘There is a very high risk of wildfires…’. We had it twice from each phone once in English and once in Welsh. I thought at first it was a bit late telling us that when the heatwave seems to be over, but of course the land is still very dry. At home on the farm, I remember we used to regularly burn the stubble and one day it got out of hand, suddenly, the line of orange flames took another direction and was leaping into the next field. I was there with my uncle and he told me to run and tell Mam. We did not have mobile phones in those days, but we had a big heavy black telephone. I was only little and could not race as fast as the flames. I travelled up our cobbled lane and turned the corner and...

  It is still here, even though I keep thinking that it has gone. When will we return to normal? Flashing blue blaring lights are becoming a usual sight on our road. The heat waves keep on coming and although sometimes I think it must rain, it never does. The grass is so dry now that it easily catches light and that is why we are seeing so many red fire engines streaking by. The gardens and fields look dead, but they are not. Somehow our new trees are surviving. The ones we planted as soon as we came have got their roots down and are quite strong, the more recent ones have lost some leaves but are still holding on. I remember in 1976 looking up at the never-ending blue sky and wondering if it would end. It did and we had rain in September. Some plants seem to think that it is September already. We went on a country walk yesterday and the hedges were full of berries. There were red hawthorn, wild rose and guelder rose berries weighing down the shrubs so much that they were almos...