Monday, July 14, 2008

trance, free, chance

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We saw this blackbird on a path in an apparent trance . When we spoke to it, it didn't react although we were no more than three or four meters distant. All that moved were its eyes. After I had taken a couple of photographs, however, it hopped into a shrubbery. I saw it again in the same spot soon after, whereupon it flew away. There are a number of young and inexperienced blackbirds around at the moment and I can only conclude that it was one of those.

Free must be the word most used in marketing goods at the point of sale. In Sainsbury's above the line of checkouts are six big placards on each of which in large capital letters is the word FREE. In smaller letters you read that what is free is a bottle of Coca Cola, if you buy another bottle of Coca Cola that is. It is interesting that a word meaning that there is no cost attached to an item should be so widely used to urge people to spend money on it. The desire for something for nothing seems inexhaustible.

Some sweet peas which I planted in the Spring, before the leaves of nearby trees were open, in what was then a fairly sunny place but is now a shady one, have not been a success. But there have been a few flowers and these, leaning towards the light, have woven their way among some fennel leaves, an unexpected and pleasant mingling.

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