Margaret Cartwright was a long-time resident of a property adjoining the field we now know as the Tufa Field.

She witnessed the progression of the field from dairy pasture to horse paddock to the re-wilded state we see today, and the ever-changing nature of the plants and animals within.

Following her unexpected passing in December 2023, it was her wish that the lines she penned  should be more widely shared as both a lament for the loss of a precious space, and a reminder of the simple pleasure to be had from our nature on our doorstep.

Let us hope that there is still the possibility that Margaret’s lament does not become the obituary for the field she loved.

Rest, Margaret.

Ode to a Pasture
by Margaret Cartwright

Trees –
native, not rare or exotic
but shelter and food to life –
birds, woodpeckers, owls, tits – blue, great, long tailed, doves, robins,
blackbirds
summer bird visitors,
insects of many sorts
bats, deer, badgers.
Shrubs, nondescript perhaps;
but food for small mammals and butterflies,
and people sometimes,
blackberries and elderflowers –
Flowers, carpets of ox eye daisies
———-
A small pasture, nothing grand
or manicured,
Just a green lung in a city
with traffic pollution problems –
Lost for ever.


mc 2021