A Change in the Temperature?

Was walking home today, and for the first time in… too long… it was before 5 p.m… and for the first time in too long, the sun was still up.  On the way out, the sky a non-descript 10/10 grey with a hint of bruising around the edges, but daylight, not sodium light, was the rule.  And for the first time in… memory fails… I could actually hear birds singing.  You don’t really associate London with the sounds of birds singing, but at dawn and dusk a surprising collection of sparrows, pigeons, yellow tits and blackbirds turn out for a bit of a chorus, and if you listen, and the traffic is a few streets away, you can hear, perhaps, the first signs of spring coming.  And not a moment too soon.

That said… for all that snatches of birdsong heard when the traffic falls briefly silent cannot fail but to be evocative, the kind of feeling that gets evoked when that damn pigeon that’s decided my window sill is a fascinating place to coo in at 6.30 a.m. every damn morning, is probably best not put down in words.