Beauty in the heart of Hertfordshire

Damien Enright on a rural paradise outside London

AS 30 of us stood singing Happy Birthday to one of my sons in a Hertfordshire garden, a flock of Canada geese flew house-top-high in V-formation above us, black cut-outs against a sky already midnight blue at 10 o’clock.

They honked loudly, all together, whether in protest at the cacophony rising from beneath or in an effort to join it. They were dramatic, beautiful birds, perfectly synchronised in flight, one trailing edge of the V slightly longer than the other. There must have been 30 of them. We all looked up, marvelling at the sight.