A Walk and a Heron Fishing

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• What a relief that one of you keeps up the Innisfree photoreports. I was feeling bereft and there it is again. We're so lucky here that herons have completely repopulated the Thames.

  • Sadly, Innisfree is now closed for the season. Good for the wildlife - and the staff who monitor the entrance in the cold - but not so much for those who love the walk around the lake, icy paths notwithstanding. No more new pics until the Spring.

• Beautiful!

  • It surely is a most beautiful place.

• I love herons. Beautiful solitary creatures.

  • Yes, solitary. I have seen two herons there but never together. So I went and looked up the collective nouns for a tribe of herons. And here they (allegedly) are:
    sedge, sege, siege, station, flight, colony, battery, hedge, pose, rookery, scattering
    I also learned that they nest in colonies but like to be solitary in the off season.
    Cheers Gert.

• I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
  And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
  Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
  And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

  And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
  Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
  There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
  And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

  I will arise and go now, for always night and day
  I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
  While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
  I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

  • Ah! yes. I often think of Yeats on Fleet Street and feeling homesick and writing of a place that was magical to him in childhood. We all have those special places. Lots of "nature" at this Innisfree but it's very much a human creation. This is from the website:

    "At its core, Innisfree is about the individual’s experience in nature. Inviting exploration and even contemplation, Collins’ sweeping landscape merges the essence of Modernist and Romantic ideas with traditional Chinese and Japanese garden design principles in a form that evolved through subtle handling of the site and slow manipulation of its ecology. The result is a distinctly American stroll garden — a sublime composition of rock, water, wood, and sky achieved with remarkable economy and grace." http://innisfreegarden.org/

    It's great for a soodle, stroll or saunter. And there are many seat at different places around the lake and garden so it's also an ideal place to read!

• What a beautiful place!

  • It is. I feel lucky to have it not so far from home. I often see a heron there but never this close. Interesting as there were quite a few people close by on the path all chattering away and the heron stayed unfazed.

• Gorgeous photos!

  • Thanks Becky. It's a gorgeous place so taking some good snaps is easy!