Country diary: Lichen shows that there is life among the dead

Egleton, Rutland: The living pile on to the foundations of the dead, generation after generationThere's a butterfly on the hedge. A handsome red admiral, it's gone all of a sudden, and we follow it to the village sign, where it poises, all statuesque legs and cantilevering wings. Then it's off again, into a churchyard. And we follow it there too.There's vibrancy here, though, of a different kind. The light of the late afternoon peers through the ring of trees, giving the jostled gravestones a glow that lends the ethereal to something that, if we're honest, is generally anything but. These old bludgeons of stone, etched solemnly when new, are so old that even the descendants of those who erected them probably now have their own. But as we wander through the yard, enjoying the afternoon and looking for the butterfly, I notice that time has been kind to the gravestones. The glow around their edges is diffused, blurry. Life has enlivened them, at last. Continue reading...