a lifetime burning

By Sheol

Where be that Blackbird to?

You have to love a blackbird - not the most beautiful of birds perhaps, with its plain black plumage - but what a lovely sound he makes when he sings first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening to herald sunrise and sunset.  In a few more weeks time I dare say he'll get round to waking me up at ridiculous o'clock in the a.m. as the daylight extends.

Growing up in the South West it was hard to escape the Wurzles - popular for no reason I ever really understood; but then I'm not native to this part of the world originally, which perhaps explains the failure of my cultural alignment.  

Just in case you've missed this apotheosis of folk pop history from the South West (you lucky thing),  the  lyrics involve a vengeful farmer who wishes to bring death and destruction to the poor blackbird:

"Where be that Blackbird to?
I know where he be
He be up yon Wurzel tree, and I be after he
Now I sees he, and he sees I
Buggered if I don’t get ‘en
With a gurt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!


All me life I’m on the farm, workin’ for me keep
Tendin’ pigs and chickens, and they cows and sheep
But everywhere I’m workin’, there’s one who always mocks me
He hidin' somewhere in the trees, blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!


Underneath the open sky in spring we loves to dine
We likes to ‘ear the flappin’ of the missus washin’ line
We listens to a tuneful song, a blackbird or a tit,
But on me vest and underpants he scored a direct hit!


If I goes out poachin’, a creepin’ through the fields,
With me old retriever, a followin’ at me heels.
If I aim me shotgun at a pheasant in the hay
That bloody blackbird starts his row and frightens him away!


No longer can I sleep at night, get peace of any kind,
That bird’ll be the death of me, he’s prayin’ on me mind!
If I chase him long enough, I’ll get ‘en by and by,
And celebrate me vict’ry with a girt big blackbird pie!"

Is it just me or do we all hope the blackbird keeps pooping on the miserable farmer at every opportunity?

Finally, to reward your devotion to duty if you've read this far, I've given you an extra of Percy The Pigeon and a rainbow that I've entitled "Life is what happens all around you while you are concentrating on other things".  (... and yes it was a particularly fine real rainbow, not anything added in photoshop or similar).

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