Great Spotted Woodpecker feasting

I spotted a shelf of books in a bedroom which I don't go into very often. I picked up Synchronicity - Science, Myth and the Trickster by Allan Combs and Mark Holland and took it to read in the bath where I intended to have a long soak. Prior to that I had checked wit the sellers of the iMac which we'd bought yesterday for Michael online, and I'd arranged to go at lunchtime to pick it up.

We had used an account of Helena's to pay for the computer, which has the name of Woodpecker in the title. I have mentioned here several times that I have been listening to the woodpeckers knocking on wood with their idiosyncratic sound and had hoped to see them in the garden more regularly.

In the bath I read about how Carl Jung has coined the term synchronicity and the book mentioned the story of the scarab beetle, from one of his psychotherapy sessions, which is often quoted as an example of synchronous activity. I'm sure a search will tell you more if there is any one interested. I enjoyed the book and it reminded me of the many times I have experienced such events throughout my life.

Once out of the bath I was at my computer when Helena came up the stairs and quietly said that a Great Spotted Woodpecker - Dendrocopos major - was at our feeder in the Rhus tree. I looked out of my upstairs window down towards the feeders and there it was happily contemplating the food and warily checking the garden for danger. I took a few shots through the closed the window in case it flew off quickly, then went down to the dining room where luckily the sliding door was open so I could sidle up and poke the lens out across the patio, which is some way away.

In fact the woodpecker stayed for many minutes, alternating between the white fat food on top and the peanuts below. It seemed synchronistic that this should all happen together, and I am not surprised. The meaningful coincidence is unknown, but rather like Hermes, the Trickster, who often seems to be involved with such events, it just brings my attention back to the underlying otherness of and in life. I am always pleased when these little events surface and I will be paying a bit more 'attention'.