Walking up a steep hillside meadow in Warwickshire. Cows grazing near the beech wood on the other side of the field. In front of me, half of a cowpat has an oily blue metallic sheen on it. The other half is dull brown.
As I step closer, the oily sheen breaks into hundreds of points that lift off and buzz away in sudden little cloud, revealing the same dull brown beneath them.
They were flies – fat, lustrous, healthy English flies, chubby as bulldogs, completely covering one half of the cowpat.
Message from Henry is from our April 11, 2022 Newsletter