04 Nov 2026, 12:10 PM

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Frome, Somerset: Dippers and fritillaries and pink campion … there is a deep satisfaction in accumulating associations with a regular hauntEnchantment surely fills the eyes of first-time visitors who come upon this little stone bridge over the stream. Do they marvel at the judgment of hands in building, wedding rock with rock, face against face? Do they arrive on a brighter morning than this, one on which sunbeams chase each other under the arch and cast sparkling reflections of water on the underside? Does their pulse quicken watching the brook breaking out of its tunnel and skittering over the pebbled bed, hastening through even in times of sluggish drought? Me? I see a bird that isn’t there.This summer, I named a boulder by the foot of the bridge as the Dipper Stone. One afternoon, placing palms on the ledge, I leaned over and came closer to a dipper than I ever had and perhaps ever will. There it stood in its classic “Where next?” stance. A dipper is fine doing squat-thrusts where it can see you, but this one didn’t like forced intimacy and sped off downstream, with pointy tail and scudding wings. Continue reading...

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