Gold coins, gold rings and trinkets? No thanks, give me a field of golden barley...a gift from nature.
There is a field of barley growing alongside a road I regularly walk and I cannot pass it without stopping for a while to savour the whole scene and soak in the atmosphere. Something about it arrests my attention and calls to something deep inside me I think many people feel the same way and it was such a place that moved Sting to pen that beautiful song 'Fields of Gold.'
Each time is a new experience as the weather creates a different vista. I think a field of barley shows us the subtleties of the atmosphere as few other natural features do. Of course, trees move and bend according to wind direction and strength, sometimes being tossed about in gales or the leaves barely moving in a gentle breeze. Perhaps it is because barley is smaller, more fragile and flexible that it is so responsive to every movement of the wind and air currents. Growing in dense rows, the sheer quantity of barley is dramatic in itself and there is no finer site than the spectacle of the wind gently blowing and the sea of barley flowing in one direction as though an invisible hand is gently brushing across the tops. Looked at individually, the ears have a certain beauty and the ‘beard,’ the long tufts growing above them, give a feathery look to the plant. The ‘beard’ is unique to barley and is what distinguishes it from wheat.
Yesterday evening was sunny and hot and we went for a walk, passing this barley field. It was about 8 o clock and the sun was slowly sinking in the sky. The effect of the sun’s rays was breath-taking as it cast its light through the ‘beard’ giving them a ruby hue transforming the field of gold into a field of strawberry-blond. Depending on the time of day, the degree of sunlight, amount of cloud, or presence of wind the same field is almost an entirely different place in look, sound and mood.
That field to me is like a picture. It is framed by hedges and fences with a wider backdrop of trees, fields and fells. It is always lovely and a pleasure to contemplate but unlike other great works of art, this one is fresh, vibrant and ever-changing. But then it is painted by the greatest of all artists, the hand of nature.
Fields of Gold performed by Eva Cassidy
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