IT WAS LESS THAN PLEASANT, IT REALLY WAS... (Badger watching at Temple Balsall, 24th March 2023...)

 It Was Less Than Pleasant, It Really Was…

I was upwind of the setts. A bluster blew

The less than pleasant silence past me with chill

And I was uncomfortable, I really was.

No wildlife could be seen, as late day sun peeped

Beneath the leaden rain clouds which had littered

The day. A sheep complained with a pipe smoker’s cough

And occasional birdsong threaded between the trees,

Where earlier windblown showers had seeped.

I stood some metres from the setts, leaning askew. 

The less than welcoming copse disconcerted me still

And I was apprehensive, I really was.

No badgers would exit holes, the rims heaped

With mounds of scraped earth and debris scattered

About. The light waned quickly about that landscape rough

But the leaden sky turned black, adding to my unease,

For it exuded a threat with its darkened storm clouds steeped…

Pete Ray

26th March 2023  

Temple Balsall…

Took food for the badgers there but again saw none emerge from their setts. 

The woodland was lonely, unpleasant and became even more so, as the distant partial peach sunset was callously painted over by low blankets of black storm clouds, following a showery day…