Country Notes

Published on 8th November 2007 in News

As expected, Bonfire Night has triggered off some foggy weather conditions, and there is a very distinctive smell in the air of smoke and fireworks.

However, with an early-morning walk round the garden, the mist produces a wonderland of gossamer, highlighting all the intricate spiders' webs.

There are so many of them, and you just don't see them normally.

The tiny water droplets adhering to the webs are spangled with the sun's faint rays as it breaks through the mist.

But when the sun has burned away the mist the jewels evaporate into thin air, leaving everywhere just dull and drab, and the world of spiders has disappeared.

Then, at the other end of the day, dusk is coming in early now, and I am seeing increasing numbers in the flocks of starlings.

A flock flies in to land and then rises again and is joined by another flock from another direction.

Then more and more fly in from nowhere, joining the first flock, and they swarm like bees; it's quite mesmerising as they make patterns in the sky.

Then they all flop down to land, bedecking the skeletal trees with living leaves, and the noise they make is quite ear-shattering.

Then, without warning, they are up and away, swirling into the greying sky, and I am left with an eerie silence.

Rosemary Roach