Friday 9 March 2012

sing spring

 

We had an errand to run, down to Cornwall. And, as the weather was fine and Deborah knows the area, we went across the moor. It was a revelation to me; I've seen Dartmoor from the south and from the north, looming like a big looming thing; and I've hovered over it and zoomed around it on Google Earth, to get a perspective for the map I drew for Deborah's novel. But now I was seeing the area I'd drawn, for the first time in  real life.

Patches of sunlight chased the shadows across the tors, which Deborah counted off as we meandered up the Dart to Dartmeet, then chugged up onto the wide open country south of Princetown, and walked out to Syward's Cross. 


A skylark hopped ahead of us, then flitted to a hummock and watched warily as I photographed it. Then it took flight, and sang as skylarks sing, filling the big sky.


"Richard and I climbed up the mountain where BS Johnson met God, up on Lleyn, once," I said. "We met a skylark at the top. It may have been a visitation, you never know". 

If God is speaking through skylarks, she may be using the wrong number, as the message comes across as a fax transmission. But you can get the gist of it, I think, even so.

The sun warms my face.
I squint and see, way up there
The skylark sing spring.


7 comments:

  1. I like the skylark thought. They remind me of long walks we took as a family to Westbury White Horse. There was always a skylark singing its little heart out then. They do seem to be perfectly sat between heaven and earth.

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  2. Awesome place.

    Time I went up the mountain here to listen to the larks and the ravens

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  3. 'If God is speaking through skylarks, she may be using the wrong number, as the message comes across as a fax transmission.'

    Now that made me laugh out loud!

    Dartmoor is fantastic, I don't think there's anywhere else that quite emphasises how big the planet is.

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  4. I very much like the shot of the cross. For some reason, I haven't explored Dartmoor much. I need to go there this year.

    lucy

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  5. Skylarks remind me of sunshine,space and fresh breezes.

    I love the picture of the sheep

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  6. I wonder if we all have our perfect skylark moment? -mine is in the Lancashire flatlands, where we used to cycle across the Moss to my grandparents when I was v small, and the fields went on for ever and the sky was huge and sprinkled with skylarks and peewits.

    I think Dartmoor needs a bit more exploring by me, too.

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  7. Love Dartmoor ... and especially Dartmeet. Fond memories.

    Nick

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