Nights by firelight and owl song
June 6, 2021

Fledglings

The world is filled with new life, fledglings of all kinds. It is noisy, messing, sometimes cruel, and so full of vitality and life. It’s an boisterous energy that cannot be contained or ignored. From vetch, to rabbits and birds and even humans, fledglings fill this world with a fragile, exuberant colour.  

In this episode we also discover some of your ‘first poems.’

Journal entry:

“2nd June, Wednesday

Great God, I love this weather. 
 When mounting, rock-grey slabs of clouds climb into the sky 
 and that playful wind, that precedes rain, 
 kicks and blusters the flaccid air
 that is heavy with 
 sticky heat and insects and pollen dust
 and the floral, vegetable scent of life.

I could stay in a place like this forever, 
 balanced on the razor-edge of a coming storm.”                 

Episode Information

In this episode I refer to the early 17th century English printed volume by Nicholas Breton of the 15th century The Kalendar of Shepherds: Being devices for the twelve months.

You can read a digitised reproduction of this book, with its wonderful woodcut engravings, in the Welcome Library: The Kalendar of Shepherds: Being devices for the twelve months.

I also refer to W. Keble Martin’s (1965) The Concise British Flora in Colour published by Ebury Press. It was a book that was much loved (and consulted) by my mother. 

General Details

In the intro and the outro, Saint-Saen's The Swan is performed by Karr and Bernstein (1961) and available on CC at archive.org.

Two-stroke narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence. 

Piano interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.

All other audio recorded on site. 

Contact
For pictures of Erica and images related to the podcasts or to contact me, follow me on:

I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com