Monday, July 18, 2005

Horseflies and Bilberries


Out with the dogs
Originally uploaded by NellyMoser.
Yesterday evening we took all three dogs to a place called Craig's Wood on the Ballymoney side of Rasharkin. Bert said we'd been there before but I couldn't remember it. He said "It's a wood next to a moss and the last time we went you told Hannah that it was full of fairies." Then I did remember telling the poor child it was a very dangerous place hoochin* with malevolent fairies and that there was a hidden doorway to the ancient past into which an innocent mother and child could stumble and find themselves wandering lost forever.

At first Bert couldn't find the road into the wood and every two minutes he'd be stopping to look at his OS map. A major difference between Bert and myself is that he likes map reading while I like going for walks. I had to say to him that us sitting in the van studying up maps was doing very little to reduce the dimensions of my fat arse. If I had been driving I'd just have charged about until I found the road.

The wood was lovely and cool and in one part the path was edged with bilberry bushes so we took some time to feast on one of Nature's superfoods. But it was also hoochin with horseflies (malevolent fairies?) and I was bitten at least three times.

Afterwards Bert was mad for an ice cream. It was a hot evening. I was driving on the way back and dropped him off in Rasharkin. I watched him come out of Rogan's shop slurping a Magnum and I thought to myself that he is still a big kid. Which is one of the reasons I love him still.

*hoochin - infested with

3 comments:

Nelly said...

They sound awful. When we went to the Southern states the mosquitoes ate me alive. Why did God make stingarees?

Anonymous said...

Clegs are indeed very plentiful this year! I find killing them when they are biting seems to reduce the itchiness of the bite.

Nelly said...

Aah and alas! Lovely Leitrim is also alive with clegs. V. nice to hear from you Dede.