the crocus is out

whatever the weather, the crocuses are out. Crocus is also slang for a quack doctor.

frozen spawn

there was a sudden profusion of frog spawn about 10 days ago in every puddle and ditch. Today they are all frozen solid. I hope this does no harm. I doubt it; if they were that sensitive they would never survive the average English Spring.

Down House Snowdrops

snowdrops on the drive to Down House

flow

this picture captures better than most the hectic flow in our little babbling brooks. My friend Brian , who occasionally makes an appearance in the comment columns as the Rationalist, and who is, I have just learnt, the celebrated author of the seminal work on de-umbilification, drew my attention to a passage in the Book of Silence by Sara Maitland which I want to quote in its entirety because it describes what we seek on our walks and occasionally find.

" And there, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, I slipped a gear, or something like that. There was not me and the landscape, but a kind of oneness: a connection as though my skin had been blown off. More than that - as though the molecules and atoms I am made of had reunited themselves with the molecules and atoms that the rest of the world is made of. I felt absolutely connected to everything. It was very brief, but it was a total moment."

For me these moments seem timeless, and above all I feel present and deeply interconnected, the boundaries have dissolved, but it is wordless, pre-verbal; and Spot shares this with me. It is not thought free, in fact it feels deeply thoughtful but wordless, unconstructed, unlabelled. I think it must be how we thought before we used names to crystallise out the world around us, and perhaps is similar to the inner mental space of other creatures like Spot.

life in a snowdrop

we have been out experimenting with a long neglected Sigma 105 macro lens. It is very different. The snowdrop is one of the complex multi flowered heads that grow wild locally, the drop is for fun although it gives me the germ of an idea.

bird counting day

It is the RSPB's bird counting day today. You spend one hour watching the birds in the garden and record the maximum number at any one time. Of course, everyone puts out lots of bird food and as a result our garden is unusually empty. I am not sure whether or not we can count the buzzard sitting on the roof of Kitt's Cottage as in our garden. I have never before seen a buzzard sitting like this in the middle of our village, they usually avoid people at all costs; it is another sign I think that their behaviour is changing because of the cold, or else they were aware that it was bird watch day and decided to join in.