The Long Road Back

It seems as if I have been away for a long time. The road back to normality has been long and hard and there is still some way to go. Not there yet but I feel I have started and as the Chinese proverb says the longest journey starts with a single step. Things at Birdwatcher towers are still tense. The things that were important to me lie neglected and ignored though I have picked a few of them up recently and this has helped.
Where have I been? To be honest I don’t know. I have suffered a massive loss of perspective and have behaved at times stupidly, ignoring those around me that care, acting in a well meaning way but ultimately flawed.
So the road back starts with a single step and I have at least taken that. We shall see how long it takes to get back to where I was or if I find another road on the way. Whatever I feel I have started.
The curlews have been successful in the Goyt and the short eared owls are breeding and hunting. We have a buzzard that flies over the house almost every day and Peregrines are breeding in one of the local quarries. Some things are normal at least.

1st May 2007 The Goyt - Early evening

Despite the sunshine and the cloudless blue sky, a sharp wind whips off the hillside behind me and makes me glad that I wore a fleece. It is quite chilly sitting on the bench overlooking the valley. A young couple stroll past arm in arm. They are in shorts and tee shirts. Maybe its my age and not the wind that makes it seem chilly. They seem to hesitate as they pass by the bench. Maybe they hoped to sit there themselves.

Below in the valley the curlews liquid cry is cut through by the raucous rasp of a grouse. But the curlews persist and the grouse give up. Somewhere behind me on the hillside I hear a lapwings distinctive call while a skylark sings above me. From far away I hear the throaty growl of a super bike on Long hill. It provides an ever louder background sound as it fights the dips and curves of the road, getting closer and closer before the noise recedes as the bike hurries down the hill into Buxton.

Peace descends on the hillside and in the valley. The sun sinks lower and the shadows chase the fading light away across the slopes. I retreat reluctantly back to the car. But before I leave I watch the wind ripple across the surface of the pond, fracturing the water into a thousand pieces.

Tonight would be a good night to bring the children to see the night sky unpolluted by lights. Not only is it a cloudless sky but the air is so clear. But they have school and I have to go to work early tomorrow, so I doubt that I will bring them. But there will be another time, there will always be another time.

Sunday Afternoon in the Goyt

It was a glorious spring day. What better way to walk of the excesses off Sunday lunch than to take a stroll in the Goyt. Mrs BW declined. She said she needed a little bit of peace and quiet. So I took the fledglings. Amazingly they actually wanted to come with me. Even when I said the word Walk. This normally causes them to go pale, and to hide their walking boots. I found out why they wanted to come as soon as we pulled out of the drive. "Can we get some sweets dad, and a drink?"

We did not do a long walk. It was more of a stroll really. The fledglings ran on ahead. This left me to get on with the important business of clearing the clutter from my head. A Sky lark rose into the air and hung there. I heard then saw a curlew. The clutter began to disappear.

I caught up with them by the bridge, where in the summer we often take a picnic if the weather is good. We played a couple of games of "Whats the Time Mr Wolf", but I was rubbish at catching them.

They wanted to roll down the steep slope opposite. This is fairly harmless thing to do. They get a lot of pleasure from it and they do look very funny, especially when they get to the bottom and try and stand up. We decided against it eventually.

On the way back the lapwings were out and about, and there were a couple of geese by the duck pond, but we had more important things to do. Like get home to watch Dr Who, which I had missed on Saturday night. "Its really good dad, you must watch it!"

Tomorrow I have get up early and go to Loughborough. It is the first exciting day under the new management, and they have arranged a "day" of "workshops" and opportunities to meet everyone. They will tell us how exciting the future will be. How wonderful the new technology will be. We will sit there and nod and smile. My heart won't be in it though. It will be in the Goyt straining to hear the curlews.

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough.

Well maybe not quite yet but the Goyt has broken its winter silence. The curlews cry floats across the valley. A daffodil has flowered in our back garden, blackbirds sing in the early morning mist, the sun is out and it’s warm outside. (Well warmish!) Spring appears to have arrived! Everything looks brighter, the light is softer, and it’s good to get up in the morning. Much as I enjoy winter, you can have too much of it. For us its been almost unrelenting grey, windy and wet for the past month or so. If its gone and spring really is here then good riddance I say.