Mists and mellow fruitfulness
Yesterday we paid a visit to [Famous Local Village A] and I saw a kingfisher on the By Brook. Which was cool. I was also rather taken with the tomb of the twice-crusading local knight, dated 1270, in the church. There's something I can't express in the romantic incongruity of finding it, in a sleepy church in a sleepy village in a sleepy valley, seven hundred years later.
Today, I'm just back from a [very] leisurely* twelve mile ride to [Famous Local Village B]. I saw a bird of prey that I couldn't identify (though it seemed to put the rooks into a bit of a tizz); it looked too big for a kestrel, and was a bit like a heron except without the long neck and legs, and not grey. Heh.
The day was cool but the sun warm, and given the time of year and week it was pretty quiet. Late-autumn days roaming old stone villages with wood-smoke in the air are one of the few things I felt nostalgia for when I was at Cambridge. {By the way, did anyone make it as far as the Gog Magogs when they were there?}
Seems to me that what I'm best suited for at the moment is retirement. But that's not what I want to do, so I'd better get back to making plans!
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* Except for when I tried to keep up with that LandCruiser...
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I guess the time of year that's approaching now is, along with May Week, one of my favourites and most full of memories. For example, I've been listening to the recordings of last year's concerts... in light of which I did wonder how exactly Christ's Voices are going to manage Mozart's Requiem, especially now they've had to resort to employing girl tenors. But then I expect they're better than a lot of male tenors, and I know that the quality of the recordings is hardly professional (which is fine, of course), so maybe I'm being too harsh on them/us. Hehe.
There was something else I was going to say but now I've forgotten it...
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Ah, Toby's just reminded me: cricket! Now that I'm paying attention I finally know what the Rupert Murdoch song is about, and feel inclined to sing it...
Today, I'm just back from a [very] leisurely* twelve mile ride to [Famous Local Village B]. I saw a bird of prey that I couldn't identify (though it seemed to put the rooks into a bit of a tizz); it looked too big for a kestrel, and was a bit like a heron except without the long neck and legs, and not grey. Heh.
The day was cool but the sun warm, and given the time of year and week it was pretty quiet. Late-autumn days roaming old stone villages with wood-smoke in the air are one of the few things I felt nostalgia for when I was at Cambridge. {By the way, did anyone make it as far as the Gog Magogs when they were there?}
Seems to me that what I'm best suited for at the moment is retirement. But that's not what I want to do, so I'd better get back to making plans!
---
* Except for when I tried to keep up with that LandCruiser...
---
I guess the time of year that's approaching now is, along with May Week, one of my favourites and most full of memories. For example, I've been listening to the recordings of last year's concerts... in light of which I did wonder how exactly Christ's Voices are going to manage Mozart's Requiem, especially now they've had to resort to employing girl tenors. But then I expect they're better than a lot of male tenors, and I know that the quality of the recordings is hardly professional (which is fine, of course), so maybe I'm being too harsh on them/us. Hehe.
There was something else I was going to say but now I've forgotten it...
---
Ah, Toby's just reminded me: cricket! Now that I'm paying attention I finally know what the Rupert Murdoch song is about, and feel inclined to sing it...
posted by Z31 at 12:43 pm
2 Comments:
It was almost certainly a buzzard, unless it was only very marginally larger than a kestrel, in which case it could have been a sparrowhawk. Buzzards are exciting, though not quite as big as golden eagles. cf e-mail.
TCH
I think you're right, judging from the RSPB website and the fact that Andy agrees with you :)
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