I’ve
got a bird feeder just outside the kitchen window. It doesn’t often get used
while I am in the kitchen: our local bird population seems to be rather wary, although
the robin and blackbird will eat if I stay reasonable still. The doves are a
different matter. They seem to make a point of looking into the kitchen to see
me. I imagine they are trying to catch my attention to encourage me to bring
food out: they look at the empty tray and cock their heads at me. If I do have
something to take out for them I often hear a “coo!” as I walk up to the
feeder, which always sounds to me like a “here she comes!”
Once
a dove could barely wait until I was out of the way and in her excitement (I
always seem to assume that doves are female) she almost flew into me. I’m not
sure which of us was more surprised. When I get back into the kitchen the doves
will be picking over the food, throwing the larger pieces onto the floor. They
will catch my eye, and I feel as though they are thanking me for their dinner.
Yesterday
I picked up my pipes. I’d been humming Flanders
all day and was sure I could play it. I couldn’t identify the opening note and
by the time I’d got it wrong two or three times I’d lost the tune entirely, so
swung into a nice rendering of Perth instead.
After that I began on what I thought was St
Valery. The A part went well, but the B part felt all funny and fizzled
out. I struck up the A part again – and that was the moment I realised that I
was playing Flanders, not Valery at all. Often when I confuse two tunes it seems a good sign that they
might go together, so once I’d gone through Flanders
a few times I went straight into St
Valery, and that seemed to work very well. I’d been looking for a partner
for St Valery, so am glad to have
found one – it’s just a shame that Flanders
already had a partner in Perth. I
suppose they could make a threesome, but that would be a rather lengthy set. I
will have to see.
And
is this sudden garrulousness a sign that I was wrong to think this blog has
outgrown its use? We shall see…
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