Thursday, March 09, 2006

Lay figures, dawn chorus, Grove symphony

Because I am usually asleep at that time, I do not usually hear the dawn chorus, but I caught it this morning with pleasure; it seemed as though it was still dark, but there must have been light in the eastern sky.

I have always been fascinated by lay figures in shop windows, particularly when they are off duty. The other day I saw a group of them clustered in one corner of a window in Hoopers department store, while window dressers were at work in the other. The figures turned in towards one another seemed to be in conversation with one another and a little embarrassed to be caught without their clothes.

On my way home through the Grove, I stand still for a moment and listen. That thrubbing engine sound is a helecopter passing overhead. In the house on the corner decorators are at work, and the sound from there seems to be one of those mechanical floor sanders, scouring away. In the distance there is the drone of at least one other aircraft. There are children's voices. You can just hear traffic in the High Street. And somewhere in the branches overhead a blackbird is singing.

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