Most odd.

We are planting a new hedge. It's going to be roughly 100m long and will be made up of the Dingle Nursery's deluxe hedging mix: Hawthorn, Hazel, Field Maple, Spindle, Blackthorn, Dog Rose, Holly and, for good measure, some Rosa rugosa and Rosa glauca. Underneath I hope to tuck in some Primroses and no doubt Honeysuckle will find its way in there too.

The ground has been cleared and we've started planting, but dozens of metres stretch ahead of us. The little bare-rooted plants that are in the ground are titchy things. They have a long way to go before birds may build their nests there and we can say 'Ah, that's a fine hedge'. They're planted in good soil though and we will do our best to prevent them getting overwhelmed by couch grass and cleavers, nettles, docks and the myriad other pernicious weeds that do their best to undermine my attempts to tame nature.

We will lay newspaper down and mulch on top with bark chips. That should do the trick in the weed suppressing department.

Now, on the way out of Marton, just before you turn off for Chirbury, is a small smallholding (is that tautology?) where as a by-product of the owner's fence post and firewood business, one can also buy chipped wood and bark. Kevin and his father work out of a wood stacked shed shared with three handsome Hereford cattle which calmly chew their cud oblivious to the ever-present whine from the saw bench. Outside mountains of timber are piled high outside awaiting transformation from tree to log. In this dusty hive of industry if you are observant you can spot, chalked on the side of his ancient tractor, my blogspot address. Most odd. I wasn't expecting that.

The things you see when you haven't got your gun eh?....or in my case, camera.

PS - I did learn the story of why it was there but that didn't make it any less incongruous or unexpected.