A symptom of the cold…
Had a long hike to a forgotten little corner of a woodland local to my house just the other day, for hidden within its moss-draped Oak trees and bramble-rife undergrowth, lies an ancient Badgers’ sett. As I approached the hillock – which now has more then ten entrances into its warren system – I spotted something from the corner of my eye to one side; bleach white and out of place, entangled in the brown curled-and-furled Ferns, lay the skeleton of a Badger.
Obviously it had succumb to the extreme cold snap we’ve just experienced across the UK and its still and silent form was now ringed by a halo of grey fur, silhouetting the poor animal’s last lying place:
“And there the Badger lies, bones entwined,
on a knoll far away from our prying gaze;
an unchanging, alabaster guardian
for the future generations that arrive.”
Stretch the Horizon 