Charming the Timid Beast

 Charming the Timid Beast

Again, it is so long since I blogged. Never my intention to go so long. I am always full of ideas and things I would like to blog, but rarely seem to get round to it.

Well! It is my favourite time of year again, and this Spring I have been trying to get out and enjoy my local woods in their full glory, even though everything has been held back by the cold weather. It has been good for the Wood Anemones, but the Bluebells are only just starting to come out in dribs and drabs. 

But now is the month of Maying, and I have been desperate to do something spiritual in among the bluebells, but the weather has not been good, and as I said the bluebells delayed. Well today I was determined to get out. It was a glorious morning, with gigantic billowing Nimbus clouds, so I knew it wouldn't last long. In fact for the last week we have often had a good morning, and then hailstorms in the afternoon due to the strong Spring sunshine building up energy in the sky, and the cold weather. Now it has turned a bit warmer, and it looks like rather than hail it will be thunder storms. I had wanted to get out before the storm arrived, but I had some work to do, and indeed the storm broke on my way to my workshop, and on the way back there was lots of lightning too. So I thought my plans to go and play in Brussleton Wood were scuppered. But on my way home I could see that the rain was clearing, and there was a bright blue patch of sky in the west, so I thought it was worth 'risking it for a biscuit', and carried on driving past my house and on to the wood. And it stopped raining soon after I got there, and I hoped to get some spiritual time in before the next storm.

I have visited Brussleton Wood a few times over the years, especially at Bluebell time; it has one of the best displays of them that I have seen anywhere. And, over the years I have played my recorder and medieval bagpipes there, and in other woods and special places, but this was the first time I have brought out my Russian Tank/Tongue Drum (due to the pandemic there is a lot we haven't been able to do during various levels of lockdown). It is a heavy Russian tank, so not something I wanted to carry far, or for long, but I wouldn't have to take it far; just a short way down the old Roman Road (Dere Street), and then hopefully find somewhere I could sit and play it on my own; and with it being a Monday afternoon, and with the thunderstorms, there should be few others around. And as it turned out I did get the place to myself. 

Or so it seemed!

So off I set down the Roman Road, struggling to take photos one-handed, due to not wanting to put my heavy drum down.

I could see it was a lot greener than when I sneaked a peek last week, but I also suspected that the bluebells were still far from at their best.

And this suspicion was proved right, as I entered the wood properly.

But I didn't mind, as the wood was looking lovely and peaceful anyway; and I was here now, and so happy to be here. It felt really happy!

I then began to look around for the right place to sit and play, and set off down a path I know, still struggling to take photos while holding my heavy drum.

Then came one of those times in your life of happy sublime co-incidence and serendipity, when you are just in the right place at the right time, in the right mood, and with the right equipment for that time and place and moment in time. A lot of the pictures I thought I took over the next few minutes, I clearly didn't, due to trying to operate the phone camera one handed and not move too much.

I had intended to go much further into the wood, and was looking for a suitable fallen tree to sit on. There was one near this spot (above), but something happened here, that meant I didn't go any further this time. Even I can't see her in the above picture, but I saw her in the distance at the time. A row deer, with her white arse towards me, but she had probably turned towards me at this stage, deciding on whether I had seen her, and whether to run or not (I am assuming it is a 'her', I certainly 'feel' it was a her). So I think she is in the above picture, or maybe it was one of the ones that didn't get taken? Luckily some of them did get taken, as you will soon see.

So I saw her in the distance, and she saw me. I stood still, and so did she. Then I brought up my drum, cradling it in my left arm, and started playing with my right. "What is this strange noise?" you could see her thinking. "What is it? What is it??" As I played, I was delighted that she did not bolt as I expected her to have done as soon as she had seen me (as has happened before in this wood). But instead of running away, she turned towards me, and slowly......, cautiously....., at first, she started coming towards me!!! I couldn't believe it. My music was enticing her towards me! Not directly towards me, but she went in stops and starts, starts and stops, in a wide circle, gradually coming closer towards me, as her curiosity over came her timid fear. "What is this strange noise?"

And as she came closer, I stopped and tried to take the odd photo, hoping not to scare her, and, as I keep saying, it was a bit of a struggle and not all of what I thought I had taken were; not helped by the tears of pure joy I had in my eyes too. And as usual, what seems close and clear to you, at the time, is not as clear and obvious in the pictures.

Can you see her now? he is there.

See!

And again, a little closer.

And closer still.

I am sure that she got closer still before she finally bound away?

At this point it seemed obviously to me that this is the place that had been chosen for me by the nature spirits for me to play at this moment in time. This was the place. And I hoped that my darling doe would return if I played here (sadly she didn't, but you will see in the video that I kept looking out for her or anything else that might happen.

So I sat down on this fallen tree trunk, set up my phone and began to play.

In the first bit I played like I did when charming the beast. One-handed. Then I played more like normal, although it was a struggle to keep the drum on my lap due to the angle. It is only a short video, I had hoped to capture some of the bird song at the beginning and end, and stopped when I did as it started to rain again.

But then, as it turned out, it actually soon stopped raining, and the sun came out and it was glorious; but there are times when enjoying to time and place is more important than trying to record it. I sat there for about an hour playing, much better than this, I think, as I was more relaxed, not worrying about being recorded. I didn't really want to stop playing, in some ways, as I was just so enjoying being alive and living this very special magical moment.

As a post script. I didn't realise just who had selected this place for me to experience such magic and joy. It was only when I got home and was examining the photos that I spotted the Green Man at exactly the place where I saw the doe and decided that this was the place to play.