Getting to know your garden birds

OUTSIDE my window, the sky is suddenly blue, the sun catches the drops on the clothes-line carousel, gleams like silver on the ivy on the south side of the beeches and sets – as it were – the remaining beech leaves, low on the trees and scattered over the yard, on fire.

Rain drops on the briar bushes twinkle and shine like stars. Everything gleams; the lochs of water on the paving, the little springs bubbling up from the garden stream. The wet gravel shines and the white walls of the annex, reflecting the sunlight, are almost blinding. What a transformation! What a crazy, mixed up climate we have!

All night, it was lashing rain, with the wind churning and turning in the trees. At breakfast time, the outside world was grey and dismal, the only sign of life or colour being the blue tits busy at the peanut feeder. But now, at noon, the day transforms – as my parents used to say, it “opens up”. What an apt description that was!