I WAS in the garden yesterday evening, tending a bonfire, its Doric pillar of smoke ascending into a sky of equally ashen colour. The embers of the day were almost out. Always, this standing sentinel over a fire at dusk makes me think of Neolithic hunters in deerskin warming themselves around the camp blaze, British Tommies in balaclavas gathered beside a brazier in the trenches; helping my grandparents burn the dead bines in the hopyard. Ancient things.
Sometimes, I gave the burning heap a prod, so that its orange sparks leapt up to join the white sparks of the stars, and flames painted primitive drawings on the walls. The scent of woodsmoke was intoxicating.
Mostly, however, I leaned on my fork and listened to the birds. Is it not odd that the sunset chorus receives so little attention? The avian aubade has an ‘International Dawn Chorus Day’, but where is the fuss for the birds’ evensong?
True, the dusk chorus is less intense and less structured than its early-morning counterpart, when the bird species join in a pattern so regular you could set your watch by them. Almost. (Usually, robins commence singing 75 minutes before dawn, with blackbirds, thrushes, woodpigeons, wrens, warblers following suit in intervals until sunrise, when tits, sparrows and finches add their voices.) The evening performance is looser, ‘jazzier’. It, however, has its own virtues and magic, especially in April when the trees are not yet muffled by leaves and the atmosphere is free of summer humidity, so the birdsong stands out clear in the chill air.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin April 28, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin April 28, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds