Things are looking up

 Well, especially me, as it turns out. Warned by an esteemed colleague in the city of lights that the digestive upset of the weekend could possibly be the initial signs of covid, I decided to scuttle off to Lidl to get some more tests - 6€ for a pack of 5. I walk as quickly as I can to Lidl and back, and it's about a 4km round trip, so enough to get the blood flowing.

I purchased desired tests along with rather a lot of oranges and grapes, then hurried off home. As I neared the entrance to our courtyard I looked up and saw a most welcome sight - the common cranes circling overhead. I took some worthless photos with my phone and just gazed at them for a few short minutes.

Some time in early November the cranes (grues cendrées) fly overhead crying loudly as they head south for the winter. It is the harbinger of colder weather. They never get it wrong.

All winter we long for their return. Usually on a day like this - the first day that has felt sunny and warm enough to open the windows, and to venture out without a scarf with just a light jacket instead of a heavy coat - you can begin to hope to hear them crying their way back north.

But today they were circling silently overhead - a rallying point, I suppose, before continuing their onward journey to the nesting grounds.

The long winter is drawing to a close. Spring will come. The cranes never get it wrong.



 

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