Hazel Tree from TREES by Paul Armfield
A part of the wood is what’s known as standard and coppice, the standards being the oaks and beech trees and in amongst them the hazel for coppicing, with their many trunks that would be cut every 7 years for hurdles, walking sticks, fences etc. The 'hazel dormouse' seems oddly named: though it loves hazelnuts, these don’t become edible until Nutting Day, the 14th September, barely in time for the dormouse to eat it’s fill before going into hibernation, it seems a long wait for its favourite food. The song takes the form of an altercation between the impatient dormouse and the hazel tree, I’d just finished reading Simon Armitage’s recent translation of the 12th century poem ‘The Owl and The Nightingale’, an hilarious exchange of insults which undoubtedly inspired this.
Tracklist
| 3. | Hazel Tree | 4:03 |
Lyrics
In the shadow of the oak
The dormouse from it's sleep awoke
And opening up a drowsy eye
It spoke
It said 'There's nothing in my tiny gut
My stomach thinks it's throat's been cut
I needs me a hazelnut
To go'
It looked up at the hazel tree
And said 'Send me down a filbert please
I needs me dinner, lunch and tea
At once'
'Because I've been asleep six months or so
And so I haven't got all day you know
So please hurry up'
The Hazel said 'You cheeky sod, you'll have to wait
We're only at the start of May
And our next due delivery date
Is not until September'
The dormouse said 'Oh bugger that!
And you're my natural habitat
So surely you've got something else
Some other tasty morsel just for me'
The hazel said 'Wind your neck in muskardin
My patience now is wearing thin
I've told you I've got nothing in
Not until September
But they're coppicing for hurdles and staffs
And there's insects in them piles of brash
And the honeysuckle, bramble, ash
Have fruits and seeds aplenty 'til September
The 14th of September, that's Nutting Day'
Credits
License
All rights reserved.
