I really didn't want to get up this morning.
I think I woke up in the wrong part of sleep and although I wasn't having a nightmare, I wasn't having a happy dream at the time, and I don't feel like I've probably woken up yet. I am befuddled, and my eyes don't really want to be awake, but my legs are doing that step, step, step, and I’m going downhill so it’s easy. I’ve walked towards the hill behind us and am now walking down past the cornfields. It's amazing how straight and strong the stalks of the corn are, and how short they are. If I stand next to them the tips of the stalks come up to my chest and in the past the corn was so tall. But then it got damaged by the wind. It's just one of the ways we have altered the environment and nature, and I don't actually think it does any harm. It's just a selective breeding programme. So they don't grow as tall and they get don't get as damaged. The fields are fairly large and there aren’t any hedges, but then then there never have been here, because most of the land is used for grazing cattle. Some are for beef, but the majority are for milking, and they need they need a lot of grass.
And I don't quite know how I feel about milking cows.
Their milk is designed for baby cows, and the whole structure of their body and the way they digest things is totally different from us. I mean, for a start, they have more than one stomach. And they ruminate and regurgitate so they can breakdown grass. That's one thing that a human body cannot do. But we do develop the enzymes for breaking down the proteins in cow’s milk at about 5 years of age. But, people give cow’s milk to babies and toddlers and wonder why they have colic and stomach problems, why so many children have allergies and food intolerance. Baby formula has refined elements from cow’s milk, but not the proteins which are too hard for babies to digest. Cow’s milk is full of goodness, proteins, vitamins and minerals. It is seen as a good way to prevent herat disease too. But maybe in moderation? The cow only produces milk for 10 months after the calf is born so needs to have a calf a year to keep producing, and often after 5 years they don’t produce enough to be profitable so are killed and used for ground beef. The milking cows around here are kept longer I think as there are many who limp with stiff hips. I feel sorry for them.
I’m not too keen on cow’s milk as a drink. As a child I used to love elevenses which was a glass of milk and a biscuit. That was such a treat. I only remember it when we lived at Herrison near Dorchester, and I don't remember it at all when we moved to Wimborne when I was ten. I suppose it only happened in school holidays or maybe on the weekends. I don't remember. I've got this one memory of sitting up to the table and there are crumbs everywhere but I think it's come from a photo, and I was not old enough for school at the time. Maybe it’s why I have so many allergies and asthma? But my sisters drank the same and they are okay.
Memories are strange things. When you look at a photo and you remember something from that photo, are you truly remembering? Is it a true memory? There is a theory that every time we remember a situation from our past it changes slightly. So, does that mean that things that we don't remember well that are suddenly triggered are more true? Or is every memory tainted by our experiences and knowledge that we’ve had in between the memory and the present now. These are some interesting thoughts. I've gone way off topic.
Back to corn and cows. I’m puffing now, going uphill. Cows. So no, I don't particularly like milk. And generally, I only have it in cooking. And that's even less now. We don't make sauces so much because my favourite used to be cheese sauce. And because of this cholesterol, cheese is off the menu.
Okay, bear with me a moment. I'm looking for the pathway across fields. I'm walking on a hard path, and somewhere to my left is a pathway. I may have gone past it. Maybe just up here in the grass which is taller than the corn. There is corn on the right and grass on the left. The corn is so straight, so regimented. So upright. And the grass is every which way it can be. There are some flowers on the edge. No, that’s not the way across, it must have been the bit down here. It doesn’t look easy to get through. Okay, so back down I go. Or do I just go up the field and across today? No, I think I’m going to try and find this pathway. (A few weeks after I started these walks. I read something about how good it is to wander with no preconceived pathway in mind. I have definitely been doing that.)
The path used to be really clear as the farmer kept the path cut and there was a fence on both sides, I’m sure. Let's just talk about fences. They don’t have hedges here because they use electric fences that are easy to move. The cows need moving frequently for fresh grass, so they just move the fences. Easier than moving a hedge! But hedges are essential habitats for many wildlife animals. In England it used to be hedges and the farmers would herd the cattle through to a new hedged field, but there are less dairy cattle in the UK now as the farmers were being paid so little for their milk. Consumers wanting cheaper and cheaper food. Less beef cattle too I guess as it’s generally cheaper to import. Anyway, back to the plot I have wandered away from… I don't drink milk, and now I don't eat cheese. It's funny because in the past I thought if, someone said to me I couldn't eat cheese I'd be so sad. I didn’t know how I'd cope. Felt like I couldn't live without cheese every day some form or another, and although most of the cheese I was eating was Comte, a local cheese which is one of the lowest in fat cheeses of its type. Did you know cheddar is one of the highest fat content cheeses? A little bit of information for you. What else is cow’s milk used for? Yogurt. I like yogurt and luckily it is low in fat, and I can still eat it. A woman of my age needs calcium after all, but I could give it up too, if I needed to. I guess. I have to admit there are times when I crave cheese and then I just have a tiny bit. It’s a special treat, but not worth dying for. I bought a small slice of blue cheese five weeks ago and I still have some. In the past it would have lasted just one week.
Hey, can you hear it? I am walking through the tall grass now. It’s up to my armpits. There is a pathway of sorts, a trail of flattened grass stalks, so I know this is the right way. We saw a cyclist up here when we cycled along the road, and he was travelling very slow. Now I know why. I imagine the grasses tangled and caught in his wheels. There’s the church bell tolling 8:00 o'clock. I've been walking for about fifteen minutes, and I have a choice at the end of this path. I can turn left down the track to the road and then walk back through the village. Maybe a ten-minute walk. Or I can turn right and carry on through the fields before turning towards the road. It will take longer but that's okay, I’m in no hurry. Oops, I’ve caught a string on my leg. There, untangled. This is the string the farmers use when they move the cows. It’s not electric but looks the same and the cows avoid it. I am now out of the grass and on a gravel track.
It's funny, I’m really enjoying these morning walks and saying my rambling thoughts aloud. It’s company of a kind and stops my thoughts from spiraling inwards too much.
Oh, the grass has grown high here too. The farmers used to keep this cut, but because there's so much awareness now about only cutting the grass that you need to the verges don’t get cut as often. Which is good. I’ll stop and take a picture. The verges around this area haven’t been cut as often for a few years, and there are more and more wildflowers appearing, especially in the spring. And I guess if I let my cynical me out to play maybe the farmers think that if they make the walking pathways difficult to walk on less people will walk them and they may be able to claim that little piece of space and get more beef cattle. I think it's one hectare per animal and I think it only applies to beef cattle, but I’m not sure. If don’t have that hectare, they can't buy another animal and of course, beef cattle make money. But all cattle consume so much water and need a lot of grass. (I’ve done some research into the water consumption hype and discovered that although cows need 60-120 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk and beef cattle need 15,000 litres of water to produce I kg of meat, most of the water consumed is collected rainwater and a lot of this is peed back into the soil.) Honestly, I don’t’ think both beef cattle and dairy cattle are not sustainable in the quantities we demand, but what is?
I like drinking milk made from nuts or oats. Nut milk uses about 48 litres of water to make one litre. What? And nut milk isn’t sustainable either because nut trees in many countries are stressed for various reasons. Some due to climate change. Some due to mono culture, like in California, where there are acres of almond trees just planted in rows with nothing planted between or around them. They have to bring in bees from other states to pollinate the trees. The bees are stressed from the travel and proximity to thousands of other hives, they share diseases and many die. They are also ingesting pollen from trees that have been sprayed with insecticides which also kills the bees. Crazy humans. What they need to do is cut down some of the trees and plant flowers and the other food crops to attract pollinators, and all the trees and plants would feed each other, working together in cooperation. I don't buy almonds that come from California, but I don't know whether the almonds that are used in the milk that I drink come from. Some of them state they are from the South of France and some from Spain, but I don't know how they are farmed, even though it says organic. The milk may be made there but the nuts might come from somewhere else. Maybe oat milk is more sustainable if it is organically grown and not in isolation. Oat milk needs 80% less land than cow’s milk to produce. I don't know what the answer is, it seems every good choice has its bad side.
We humans are a complicated species. We make things even more complicated for ourselves. There is a thing called moderation. And I guess if we had kept things in moderation, perhaps we wouldn't have created the problems that we've got now. We might still have the problems but maybe not as severe. The only hope that I have, that I see is how many people are starting to change. They're starting to change the way they eat, the way they grow food, or even just gardens and grow flowers and being aware of things like peat-free compost and aware of how a lot of the flowers in garden centres are grown with pesticides that make them grow nice and big and strong so you'll pay nice money for them, but those pesticides are what we call systemic, I think, and that means they're in every single part of the plant, including the pollen, yeah. That's a problem too. But people are becoming aware. I know it is more difficult to grow from seeds, especially if you want bushes but bushes are fairly good at being propagated but then you have to learn something new and it takes a little bit more time than just popping into the garden centre and buying a bush that’s already knee height or even taller, going home and digging the hole and sticking it in the ground. You don't have to wait for it to grow, don't have to nurture it and make sure it has everything it needs. It’s quick. We think we don’t have time, but we have so much of it compared to our ancestors. They had no time other than for the essentials of life. Women of my age, and I'm nearly 60, didn't have washing machines, they washed everything by hand, and that took time. They didn’t have money for throwing away clothes when they become holed. They sewed, patched, patched the patches, cut, made it into something new. Used the final rags as cloths for cleaning the floors. Everything took time, just for the essentials of living. And then exciting things happen like washing machines, transport. Everybody became more connected because of transport. No more walking to town. Everything was quicker, easier. We have so much more time, and yet we never have enough for growing from seeds or propagating bushes. How my thoughts have wandered today, from corn to cows to time.
I hope you have managed to follow my thoughts, please leave comments, argue with me, agree with me, share your thoughts on the mentioned topics.
Let my one-sided conversation become a multi-sided one.
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