Memories of Birds

Since I have been in Dublin, early July to be almost exact, I have seen only pigeons and seagulls. But, I finally saw a little robin, and  I was enchanted. I saw it last week, in a rose garden hidden away here, on the 2nd of September, and it was looking for crumbs, coming out of a border of Cotoneaster horizontalis.

I love the English Robin, and my weird memory can bring up specific times when I have seen such adorable birds. These are not the only times....

Hampstead Heath, at a pub,The Holly Bush, August, 1980,  and the bird was in a bush. I was with a significant other

Stoke Bishop, Bristol, a cold June day in 1986, when I was walking down a lane surrounded by hedges. I was not with a significant other.

Outside Sherborne, Dorset, December, Christmas Day, in 1991. Four of us were walking in the frosty cold and a small robin peeked out of a hedgerow.

Buckfast Abbey, Devon, one was singing in shrubbery, April, 2011. I was walking to the Abbey for Lauds.

Ashbourne, County Meath, January, 2012, one was jumping about and singing in a clump of varied colored roses which were blooming. I was on my way to Mass.

Cobh, St. Benedict's Priory, October, 2012, in the Bible Garden. It was singing in the small fruit trees, and, in the taller yews as I was outside praying.

I love the cheeky attitude of the English Robin and how it hops about, stopping once in a while to look at you, just to make sure you are looking at it. One must be silent to see and hear birds.