Wednesday 12 June 2013

Mozart's Magic Flute

      Nothing is more inspirational and rewarding to the ear than birdsong first thing in the morning, in the middle of June. The common garden Thrush, which is not quite so common these days, has got to be the most celebratory joyful song of them all. "Right, let's get to it, early start this morning to check out the badger set." A quick bowl of cornflakes, it was 5:04am. Out to the landrover and we were off, myself and the two dogs, Mitch and Shep. We arrived at the woodland to be greeted by four fallow deer and a munkjack, all was terribly serene. As we walked up through the beech, oak and ash plantation the sound was quite breathtaking.  It's really no surprise to me how Beethoven in some of his most memorable works used his woodwind section to try and imitate these wonderful creatures. The same could be said for Vivaldi; musical geniuses. Birdsong has always been a major inspiration of music since the beginning of time, and the two collies, Mitch and Shep, seemed to appreciate the sound just as much as I. The badger set had been worked on by the badgers throughout the night. They had had a major turfing out of old bedding and replaced it with new and it looked totally peaceful. As the three of us stood there amongst the monstrous looking badger holes I'm sure we were all struck on just how obvious it all looked once you got here listening to the glorious sounds around us, the magnificent trees, dawn in its finest glory: having badgers shot is not an option. The news this last week has been full of GCHQ, Google, Obama and intelligence surveillance. There was nothing for it; this badger set is going ‘off grid!': Operation Mozart's Magic Flute.


If you are ever lucky enough to be within earshot when the garden Thrush sings, to each and everyone of us, a little heaven brings.

2 comments:

  1. This is a beautiful blog.

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  2. On the subject of thrushes, I got vaginal thrush once and bloody painful it was too. Love the blog keep up the good work.

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