Saturday 17 July 2010
On the High Downs
Walking during the weekend on the downs from Inkpen towards Oxenwood, with the steep hill down to the plain on the right, we heard the quite beautiful sound of a skylark singing over a field to the left. The wind was strong and cold, it was no time to stop and listen for long. Just as we stopped, however, the bird also stopped singing. The clouds were so bright it was difficult to see the lark, but suddenly it was as if it started falling like a stone towards the ground. This was some way off, but it looked as though the fall were vertical until it disappeared from view behind a fold in the ground out of our sight, but then just for a moment and reassuringly it flew back into vision and down again. This was astonishing, something to wonder at. The singing which just seems to emanate mysteriously from the sky lifts the heart: it is just present, without visible source, until that moment ...
