Cherry tree

 

Cherry tree

                                                    April blossom

We have a cherry tree in the garden which was heavy with blossom in early spring and is now full of ripening cherries. I looked at it yesterday to see if there were any ready to be picked. There were a few near the top of the 12’ tree that looked ripe, but none closer to hand.

This morning, I watched a large magpie fly into the tree and a few moments later it flew out with a cherry in its beak. I was immeasurably delighted to see that. One of the purposes of growing fruit in the garden is to encourage wildlife. There’s enough for all to share. I have not seen it return, though I haven’t sat with my eyes fixed on the garden all day.

I was reminded of Robert Herrick’s poem, Cherry Ripe, which of course led me to start singing the song. 🎜🎝

Cherry-ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry,
Full and fair ones; come and buy.
If so be you ask me where
They do grow, I answer: There,
Where my Julia’s lips do smile;
There’s the land, or cherry-isle,
Whose plantations fully show
All the year where cherries grow.

Robert Herrick was born in 1591 in London and became a poet and an Anglican priest. He wrote more than 2,500 poems, and although he never married, much of his earlier work is centred on love and women. His poetry often refers to the fleeting nature of life and the necessity to make the most of it.

One of his oft-quoted poems, ‘To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,’ has the opening lines:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

 

A vocation or avocation?

 

A vocation or avocation?

You may well have had a vocation, something you felt drawn to do to earn your daily crust. You may not have had a vocation, but just did whatever you had to do to put food on the table and a roof over your head.

It is more likely that most people have an avocation. The word comes from 16^th century Latin avocation meaning ‘calling away.’ Basically, it’s a smart word for a hobby!

An avocation is something you do entirely for pleasure and is nothing to do with making money, though it might do so incidentally. It may be something creative, like embroidery or whittling. It could be an outdoor pursuit, like mountaineering or birdwatching. It may be something which exercises your mind, like poker or building a model railway. It might even be something that combines several avocations, like writing a book containing photographs you have taken of wonderful cakes you have designed and baked.

Did you have a vocation? How many avocations have you?

Have you enough time for all the hobbies you enjoy?

 

A bird in the . . .

 . . . conservatory is worth seeing.

 On Sunday evening a confused, new member of the garden avian community flew indoors. There are many plants on the windowsills and floor, enough to fool an inexperienced fledgling into thinking it’s found a rare jungle.

Herschel alerted Barry to the incomer, and he and Jellicoe were summarily hustled into the kitchen. As Barry searched for the elusive chick, wondering if his eyes had been playing tricks on him, Herschel suddenly signalled. Sure enough, a small bird was fluttering in one of the plant trays. It looked as if it was having a dip, though I suspect it was too tense to consider relaxing in a tepid bath, and was literally in a flap!

We made sure the external door was open and the internal door locked and left the little bird to its own devices, hoping it would find its way out without too much stress. Meanwhile, the cats were forbidden the freedom of the conservatory.

We discovered another, larger bird on the conservatory roof. A woodpigeon had met its end there. It looks just as if it is resting. In a sense, I suppose it is. It was an odd place for it to be, far from the gutter or the apex, with no place to perch.

 We rarely find dead birds and it’s sad to see something that was once so vibrant now still and lifeless.