Sunday 18 October 2009

here come the redwings

This is the time of year that Redwings arrive from Scandinavia, and it was a beautifully clear night, so I scrambled up onto the roof at four o'clock this morning. Sirius high in the sky, and all the other stars in the right place too. And very cold, of course. I was wrapped up in fleecies.

I sat and listened to the night city murmuring. And after a little while I heard a TSSSIIIIIPPP sound that may well have been a Redwing calling to its friends as they flew overhead.

And then a fox started crunching what sounded very much like a bone. It sounded as nice as you can expect it to sound when a fox eats a bone with its mouth open.

So I left it to it and went to make a cup of tea.

5 comments:

  1. The cup of tea sounds like the best idea to me. Hopefully the fox was crunching the remains of something he found in a bin and not a worn out redwing.

    The sky is special on a cold and frosty night. Is it too early for me to say that I feel Christmas coming?

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  2. The cup of tea sounds like the best idea to me. Hopefully the fox was crunching the remains of something he found in a bin and not a worn out redwing.

    The sky is special on a cold and frosty night. Is it too early for me to say that I feel Christmas coming?

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  3. frost on the points, probably. Me too with the Christmas thing; I was drinking gluhwein and eating stollen last night.

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  4. Wonderful drawing, Dru. Perhaps you've read John Muir's (not Jan Moir's) autobiographical The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, in which he describes his youthful ascents to the roof from the bedroom window in Dunbar, Scotland. Much recommended.

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