Sunlit cloud over the Coniston Fells When dark clouds gathered it took a while to enter into the spirit of the morning, its own spirit, not mine. I heard linnet and redpoll in the scrub, busy rearing their young broods. And a meadow pipit with a beak stuffed with insects gave a constant warning call to his nestlings, waiting for me to be gone. Somehow they can call without losing the insects they've caught. I try to make out what the pipit brings to its brood for breakfast but the light is too poor. It's so dark I can see little but if I stick it out something brighter will surely come. A metaphor for our times.
A few runners are out on Scout Scar and I meet a couple of locals I know and we stop to share the morning. There and bright clouds over the Coniston Fells and a kestrel flies above the escarpment edge where the July flowers are a joy. Swifts flew so low Sue felt they were almost below her. And she spoke of their screeching calls and times when they fly silently. I've noticed this and wonder why the different behaviour. This last week I've lived with windows wide open and it brings the calls of birds into the house, brings their lives closer- as it was in the late 18th century when the naturalist Gilbert White of Selborne spoke of the sharing his domestic life with wild creatures - owls in the chimney, something nibbling the bacon.
A friend In Western Massachussetts wrote of a black bear appearing in the wood visible from their windows, of groundhog, chipmunk and skunk. And friends in Northumberland were charmed by hedgehog courtship, red squirrel in the forest.
It's time I saw the adder that have shown on Scout Scar, but not to me this year. I returned to the spot where I'd watched the lapwing family, but no lapwing this morning. Sometimes it's chance, sometimes attention drifts. There's so much more to discover than any of us sees. That's both an opportunity and a challenge.
A friend In Western Massachussetts wrote of a black bear appearing in the wood visible from their windows, of groundhog, chipmunk and skunk. And friends in Northumberland were charmed by hedgehog courtship, red squirrel in the forest.
It's time I saw the adder that have shown on Scout Scar, but not to me this year. I returned to the spot where I'd watched the lapwing family, but no lapwing this morning. Sometimes it's chance, sometimes attention drifts. There's so much more to discover than any of us sees. That's both an opportunity and a challenge.
A morning dark, a little brighter, then cloud prevailed once more. Bramble and thistle are in full flower but the weather doesn't suit butterflies, only the tiniest flit low in the grass and in juniper. A few bees were pollinating and I always admire the red-tailed bumblebees- the term is descriptive rather than species-specific- nothing is nature is quite so simple.
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