A hint of Africa

I watched the end of the first stage of the Tour de France sipping a cup of tea it being that sort of time. I noticed a couple of small birds flying into the bushes and flowering shrubs outside the window, and wondered if they were the sparrows that I thought I saw there last week. I had checked in a bird identification book and thought they might be tree sparrows.

Normally a sparrow might not be at all interesting to most people, but they are to me as I used to love their companionship, when I had a flat in North-west London for many years. Their talk and chatter and general liveliness was so endearing.

Here in Stroud, I have not seen a sparrow in our neighbourhood at all in eight years, so the possibility of their recent arrival is most thrilling! I did get a couple of poor snaps of them, good enough to have a stab at identifying them as of the family, but not actually which bird they are. They are probably tree sparrows.

After the race ended, I started playing with some interior shots from the sette, and my eye caught these figurines, which Helena has put on the mantelpiece above the open fire-place, just in front of my old mirror.

They were presents many years ago for Helena from her great friend Una, who is currently working for Unicef in Panama City. Prior to that she was mostly stationed in East and West africa, and Helena thinks these are from Liberia. They are relatively tiny, perhaps five inches in height, and the detail in the carving is not obvious in silhouette, but I liked the black and white effect from the backlight from the window striking the mirror. Shame about all the finger marks and general dirt on the mirror surface. I don't have Photoshop to clean it up. That was not where my nickname came from.

Perhaps one day I will try to illustrate the figures better with some proper lighting, as their detail is definitely worth seeing.