Music for bumpy nights

Posted on September 16, 2009 | 7 Comments

We’re two years into the collapse of the Western financial system, one year after the fall of Lehman Brothers, and still, when you listen to panels of clever people examining what has happened and what is likely to happen, there’s no clear picture of the way forward. The optimist in me believes that at some point in the future we’ll look back on it all and be able to say that it all happened for the best.  The pessimist wonders if I’ll live long enough to see it.

I think Bette Davis has the best advice for us all:

In the evening a nightingale comes visiting, filling the dusk with liquid magic.  As balance, the midges have started up, too, so you have to risk a few bites in return for the music.  I risk it.  A life without nightingales in it would be a sad thing and not even the midges will take that away from me.

He’s been a regular visitor since the spring;  sadly, he’ll quieten down now that the leaves are falling.  Never entirely quiet, though, and just when you think he’s disappeared up he’ll pop again.

That’s worth a hey-ho if anything is.

~~+~~

in the evening
a nightingale
sings

~~+~~

This entry was posted in garden, personal, poetry and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to Music for bumpy nights

  1. Bonnie | September 16, 2009 at 13:36 |

    I have never heard such a beautiful song. Thank you and Nick Penny. Oh our mockingbirds have lovely songs but I’ve not heard one in so long. Our air conditioner is still on.

  2. Shirley, in PA | September 16, 2009 at 14:44 |

    How beautiful! Thank you for a lovely start to my day.

  3. ~ Sil in Corea | September 16, 2009 at 18:25 |

    Beautiful! Thank you, John! Now I know what to listen for! I’ve heard a song something like that up on the higher part of our mountain, but didn’t know what it was. Down in the ‘residential area,’ we usually hear magpies.

  4. wayne | September 16, 2009 at 19:43 |

    That was lovely. Our neighborhood mockingbirds sound similar but not so persistent.

  5. Mary Lee McClure | September 17, 2009 at 00:04 |

    Help! Somehow, I’m getting nothing at all in the two spots designated to be holding something either to be watched or both watched AND heard. I’m also feeling very picked on, sorely tried, and indisputably cheated! Maybe there’s something I need to do? This has only happened just recentlym, maybe the last couple postings from you.

    Remote diagnosis of this kind of problem is close to impossible, Mary Lee, unless you can set up a real-time conversation with someone Stateside. The most likely explanation I can think of is that you have a firewall/browser conflict; if changes have been made recently to either then undoing them *might* help. Or you could use a different browser. Neither clip is worth too much effort IMO. Best of luck! :-(

  6. gary | September 17, 2009 at 00:07 |

    have a nice evening John :)

  7. Andrew Duffin | September 17, 2009 at 08:28 |

    John, you are seriously honoured.

    I have not heard a nightingale sing in the wild since I was about fifteen, “somewhere in Essex” (we kept such things quiet in those days; perhaps people still do). It was an experience not to be forgotten.

    Appreciate that wonder, and never mind the recession; some things are more important.