Early Morning Wonders
The last three months have been pretty momentous with quite a few epiphanies, not least of which is the change in my pallet!
I’ve been out of the grime and smoke of London for so long I have actually started to taste food. I’m an ex-smoker so I’ve been through this before (or similar anyway) and giving up smoking has normally resulted in me choosing a milder curry, but this time it’s been fairly dramatic, I’ve started to actually like a whole new set of flavours, including Fruit (of all sorts) which up until now I have treated as the food of the Devil (It is you know, just check the story of Adam and Eve – it’s not an apple used to tempt her, it’s any fruit!) and Japanese rice cakes which I would have described as tasteless pieces of cardboard, but now they have flavour (still cardboard obviously)!
I can only give credit for this change to all those mornings walking around the country park hoping to see some rare and exotic wildlife, (normally being rewarded with a Robin and a Labrador). Most days I arrived at the Park before 7am so that I could soak up the atmosphere (figuratively and literally) before anyone arrived. The air at that time in the morning seemed somehow different, especially when snow was on the ground and there were few people in the park to see it.
There was one morning when it was so exceptionally cold and clear that I believe my breath was actually freezing as I exhaled. When I was breathing I could see glints in the early sunlight in the clouds of vapour, and I like to think that these were little crystals of ice forming from the moisture in my breath. And as the seasons started to change, slowly this year, being able to take time to study and view the first signs of spring was an absolute privilege.
Early mornings in the park can be magical whatever the time of year and this weekend there is an opportunity to experience one of the most ‘active’ times of the year, the Dawn Chorus. With every bird in the park vying for your attention it can sound a bit like an orchestra tuning up before a show, but when they all hit the beat and the symphony comes together it truly is a marvel to behold.
Of course to hear the Dawn Chorus you need to be at the park at Dawn, so starting at 5am, and going on until about 7:30am Paul Gosling, the celebrated local bird expert will be leading a group (including me) around the park, introducing the players, identifying,the characters and deciphering some of the sounds of this musical morning cacophony. You need to book and there is not much time, so get on the park at 01933 276866.
