A Surprise for Breakfast!
By Peter Finlay
It’s not always you find the window in front of you as you have your breakfast so full of delight as happened quite a few times for me towards the end of May and in early June. Not the window itself of course but the sight there for me to see only a few feet in front of the window.
They speak of a ‘charm’ of goldfinches. I wouldn’t use the word ‘charm’ exactly of what I saw. But it was a real delight. (Apparently the word ‘charm’ is nothing to do with them being a load of little charmers – though they are that to us humans, if not always to other birds! It is more to do with the sound of their singing which resulted in the old English word c’irm expressing their twittering song.)
No-mow May had become early June and my un-mown lawn – though the word ‘lawn’ would undoubtedly bring a bit of a smile to the faces of slightly more assiduous gardeners than I – was flourishing. Flourishing with an abundance of grasses of quite a variety of heights. It all would no doubt have seemed a sorry sight to anyone who had a somewhat different vision of the perfect lawn than I. For myself I was content simply to enjoy the beauty of grass as, I suppose, it was meant to be. Grasses left to do what grasses like best to do and to do in all their many different varieties, their different shades of green and other colours as well. Pinks and mauves and shades of a quiet brown. The different textures, the different feel of all their different parts right up to the soft often very lovely seed heads.
It was those seed heads that were the big attraction for the goldfinches. Not their beauty so much as their nutritional value. And so the green of the grass was now wonderfully decorated with those so very brightly coloured acrobats flitting from one seed head to the next, balancing momentarily with their small weight on every grass stem in turn. An abundance for them from my no-mow May. The bright yellow of the hawkweed everywhere amongst the grass now further enhanced by the living gold of the new visitors.
So, in this so unexpected way were my breakfasts given a very new feel with a very new pleasure there for me so close at hand. As the goldfinches enjoyed their early morning meal so did I. As I tucked in to my cereal they appeared to be more than thrilled at the cereal they were feasting on. A cereal that did not come in a box and which knew nothing of life on a super-market shelf. A cereal which had no sell-by date beyond today’s date new sprung from the soil.
The wealth we all could have so near at hand if only we could trust what near-at-hand could give us. Some of the wonder of our planet alive on our doorstep. Or at least through a kitchen window.
Featured image shows goldfinch with youngster, 2015. Photo credit: Peter Finlay
