Lovely weather lately, and I was down on the side of the Avon Gorge watching the sun set and hoping to see the Green Flash, which I didn't, just as I haven't seen it on any other sunset I've ever watched. And I've watched a fair few sunsets in my time. And seen all sorts of odd things, including a sea monster. And a White Tornado. But not a Green Flash.I live in hope though.
A creepy bloke in leisure clothes approached me and wanted my advice about cameras. After a while I realised he wasn't really interested. In cameras anyway. Next time this sort of thing happens I shall say "Oh I don't know anything, I just press the button". Or ignore them. Or kick them.
Here's a swift, and the new moon.
I have cleaned my Rotrings and cleared a bit of space on my desk and have started to take the next book seriously. And not before time. Here's the provisional cover design. The viewpoint here is from pretty much the same place as the sunset shot.
I havn't seeen a green flash yet, but I wasn't looking for one either
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to read that your sunset was spoilt by a lurker. I never go down to the beach alone, they are often naked in these parts.
I love the colours on the cover.
I always thought of Bristol as 'a town' before I started reading your blog (a bit dumb as most of the BBC radio nature programmes are made in Bristol).
Both Green Flash and Coffee Thrushes are news to me. We had our "green flash" a week or so ago when all the trees went from budding and flowering branches to sweet green shade.
ReplyDeleteWe have the Swainson's Thrush here but I've never positively identified one. Been buying "fair trade" coffee, so shade coffee is a further welcome evolution.
Colors and composition are excellent in both cover and photos!
It wasn't really spoiled, Anji; he was just a small annoyance... Brissle is HUUUGE of course! -in a nice way.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Larry! The coffee in the title is a reference to the Downs cafe where I sometimes meet up with Geraldine, and a mistle thrush often perches in the holly tree outside the window, in a suspiciously synchronous sort of way. Here is the very thrush
http://www.flickr.com/photos/belvedere/3206199580/
...the thrush in the illustration is a song thrush, but the original working title of The Fairyland Thrush, we decided, lent itself open to sniggering from the sort of people who snigger at that sort of thing (that bit of the Downs got its name in a more innocent age)... I shall look up Swainson's thrush...
Swainson's is of the same family, and thus our coffee thrush.
ReplyDeletehttp://birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=352
As you may know by now.
Fairyland? Was that a 19th century name? Or earlier?
Fair of you to consider it for a title, and reject it.
Saw cedar waxwings in a neighbor's trees this morning. A quiet bunch, their sound was mostly in their movement.
Yes, I found the same site, and heard its song, which is at once familiar and strange. I think our native thrushes are the more melodious. Do you know Browning's description of the thrush's song? "That's the wise thrush- he sings each song twice over, lest you should think he never could recapture that first fine careless rapture!"...
ReplyDeleteThe Downs were preserved from development and scenic drives added in the 19th century, and the name Fairyland comes from that time. It is quite close to an area of woodland that is now popular with gay men; and 'dogging' is apparently a popular pastime on the Downs... so "Fairyland" can be taken the wrong way and often is.
I have never yet seen waxwings. They don't get this far south and west in the UK.