Country diary: Farewell to my old cottage - we had some wild times | Michael White

Cranbrook, Kent: Courting beetles in spring and ghoulish wasp larvae in late summer - it was their home every bit as it was mineMoving day is here, and I find myself staring at the old cottage. She's a scruffy, tumble-down affair - more of the landscape than in it. I'll miss her: the dark oak bones with an ochre skin of clay brick, the handsome burnt headers in bold contrast to the veins of pale lime mortar.A building can still be visited, of course, but a place in a community cannot - and it is this knowledge that strikes me hardest. While I'm fond of my human neighbours, what has brought me real joy here is my sense of belonging, in among the menagerie of seasonal wild visitors. Continue reading...