A couple days ago I was looking at a record I used to enjoy playing as a preschooler, when I read the lyrics for one of the songs...and they immediately made me think of you and your blackbirds:
The Ash Grove - lyrics for a Welsh folk song
"Down yonder green valleys where streamlets meander,
when twilight is fading I pensively rove,
or at the bright noontide in solitude wander
amid the dark shades of the lonely ash grove.
'Tis there where the
blackbird is cheerfully singing,
each warbler enchants with his notes from the tree;
ah, then little think I of sorrow or sadness.
The ash grove entrancing spells beauty for me."
And below is the tune. I have felt as if I've always known it but never realized why until two days ago when I saw the song on one of my favorite records from childhood..."Walt Disney presents It's a Small World: 18 Favorite Folk Songs."
The Ash Grove - tune
The Ashgrove - YouTube
About bird song: I wanted to think of a distinctive bird song that I could give to you in return for the blackbirds. Finally I remembered that I hear great horned owls hooting in the evening sometimes. I love the sound of their distant hooo-hooo-hoo-hooooos:
Great horned owl hooting - YouTube
I don't have a picture of a great horned owl
, but I *do* have a photo that I took several years ago looking southwest from my backyard toward the forested area where the owls live near a stream and mouse-filled meadow:
