The feast day of St Francis, blessed with Brother Sun and blue skies! But there was some fog first thing - "Praise the Lord from the earth... Fire and hail, snow and mist..." (Psalm 148, Common Worship) - and the pyracantha berries against the coach house really stood out in their bright red splendour. There were lots of red berries in Pebworth the other day, on many and various trees I couldn't identify. They're all shouting "Eat me! Eat me!" to the birds, then "excrete my seed or drop me on a nice patch of damp earth!" so they will become strong and sturdy plants and produce more red berries.
I finally got around to asking Anthony about a bird I heard one night last week. Apparently, assuming I remembered the call aright, it was a little owl. There are tawnies somewhere as well, I think.
The fine weather lasted all day, which meant a bit of a chill later. As I wandered up and down the drive trying to get a signal on my mobile, the stars started appearing, popping out one by one behind the poplars. And then a bat flew over.
Between September 2010 and September 2011, I lived alongside an Anglican Benedictine community of monks and nuns. In November 2010, we moved from Broad Marston Manor near Evesham to Mucknell Abbey, a new eco-monastery near Worcester. This blog was about things that I observed and things that interested me. I have now stopped writing it. Thank you to all who were also interested.
Little Owls can make an extraordianry noise. We used to have a nest of them in the barn at Halscombe. I remember watching the housemartins dive-bombing one that was sitting on top of a telephone pole in the farmyard. It was like watching a batsman trying to play against fast bowling.
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The West Indies of yore? One of the most extraordinary sights I've seen was from a boat near Jura - two herring gulls harrying a sea eagle. I would have thought they wouldn't dare approach such a huge bird, but apparently it happens often if they see the eagle coming. No sporting analogy sprang to mind!
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