In 1969 Roger Deakin bought a ruined farmhouse in Mellis, a small village in north Suffolk. Walnut Tree Farm sat on the edge of Mellis Common, a medieval grazing pasture that centuries of farming had made rich with wild flowers. At the back of the house was a spring-fed moat, 12 acres of meadow and more than half a mile of hedgerows.
Roger lived at Walnut Tree Farm for 37 years, until his untimely death in the summer of 2006. He came to know the habits, the weather and the creatures of his landscape intimately.
After Roger’s death, Terence Blacker and Alison Hastie edited a selection ...
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