Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: ROAD (05/19/22)
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TITLE: Clematis vitalba | Previous Challenge Entry
By John Puckett
05/21/22 -
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It is more than two miles from Westhay to Shapwick In south-west England.
From Westhay, the route slopes down to some of the marshy land of the Somerset Levels. In ancient times the inhabitants had to pick their way very carefully, sometimes having no choice but to wade or paddle through mud and stagnant water.
Several thousand years ago people lived on the higher, dry ground around what is now called Shapwick Heath, and they built wooden trackways to cross the marsh. One of these, the Sweet Track, still exists, preserved in the wet peat.
Today, anyone travelling from Westhay to Shapwick has the privilege of a good, fairly level road, albeit with some ups and downs and awesome roadside drops down into the marshy land.
As you get nearer the village of Shapwick, the landscape begins to change.
Several years ago, as I got to the end of the marshes, I was astonished at the sudden difference in vegetation. In the late summer sunshine, the bushes and bits of hedgerow were draped with lovely fluffy climbing plants - Clematis vitalba!
Do you know what one of its common names is in this part of the world?
Traveller’s Joy!
That summer evening, I suddenly realised why it is so called. A traveller having spent ages crossing the long marsh would see the wild clematis in the distance and know that dry ground lay ahead, because Traveller’s Joy only grew on drier land, never on marshland.
The traveller would begin to feel safe and would certainly have been glad.
Traveller’s Joy indeed!
“For His anger is but for a moment, His favour is for life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5.
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On topic too.
Well done and thank you.