Is it all a front

 

Through my rainy windscreen

the sun flickers for a moment 

on that black 2019 Transporter

It's time to get the bike down

The weather doesn't look great

wipe the seat with the rag

grab the pump and I'm away

but the seat still feels claggy

down the cycle path and under the bypass

crunching over green cobnuts 

while a squirrel races me along the fence.

Bike racks outside the library

There's market stalls today: whelks,

monk, a tray of samphire; a butcher

piles chops, and "Somerset Nibbler"

stands out among the cheeses. 

I feel comfortable, the realness, the accents,

though there's nothing here I'd buy,

it's like a gone past,

not even the veg, which isn't organic.

The post office isn't open yet, so I'm 

straight into Costa for a large soya latte

to charge the phone and read C.J.L Almqvist. 

They're talking about fish, about

feeding the fish while changing the filter,

the snails that died, and other ways of

getting rid of green algae.

You've got a name use it

You can choose your friends but

you can't choose your family

It's a very true saying

people take on a different persona

Is it all a front you know

What she puts on Facebook 

I'm not going to speak ill of anyone

It isn't in my nature 

I've got to be civil, but there's things

that will always stick in my head

Always will

It's like he's still there

Yes it is

But seeing the coffin

Yes of course

It's lovely to talk to you Peter

You're a good person

I try I try

Pictures: a basically sterile bramble thicket, near Beckington (Somerset). John Norton (on the Facebook Brambles Group) told me that it's in Section Corylifolii of Rubus fructicosus agg (Brambles, Blackberries).... I suppose the name means that the leaves -- or rather, leaflets -- have a certain resemblance to hazel leaves; these ones definitely do. Other names in the myriad world of brambles include Rubus ulmifolius (i.e. like elm leaves: this is the most common species, and it's also the only one that reproduces sexually) and Section Glandulosus Series Rhamnifolii (which I assume means that the leaflets look like buckthorn leaves). 

John's website is an inspiring and helpful guide to this world:

http://www.jnecology.uk/rubus/index.html

There are over 350 named species of bramble in the UK alone. Even so, names are only allocated when the same species can be recognized in several different places. Many local bramble forms are not assigned to a species, and that's particularly the case in Section Corylifolii, which are thought to originate as hybrids of Dewberry (Rubus caesius) with brambles (Rubus fructicosus agg.). 

Section Corylifolii are known for their poor fruit production, though my plant seems quite extreme in that respect. 

Words I learnt:

The individual segments of a blackberry are called "drupelets". 

Leaflets that overlap each other are described as "imbricate", a word deriving from roof tiles (this is a distinctive feature of the Corylifolii).