I woke up on a pleasant Sunday morning in February, not too cold, blue sky trying to break through the clouds, you know the sort of day I mean. I felt refreshed and imagined the dark circles that had surrounded my eyes the night before were gone. I had no intention of looking in the mirror to check, you know, just in case, as I wanted to remain positive about the day ahead.
I lay in bed watching the ever-changing sky through the window, as Radio 3 gently eased me into the day with the help of Albinoni and Oscar Peterson. There were some lovely little birds singing their hearts out before the curmudgeonly crows, pesky parakeets and miserable magpies woke up. The magpies always sound so grumpy, that I imagine they are bad risers and like to sleep late. I never hear or see them before 9am, whereas the little birds always sound so cheerful, chirruping away at all hours. Then out of nowhere a Blue Tit landed on the boiler ventilation pipe, looked straight at me, sang a few bars of its favourite song and flew off. Beautiful.
I watched the clouds change from hearts to triangles to sombrero’s and it see
med to me that the radio knew exactly the right music to accompany my morning.
I don’t know if you listen to Radio 3 in the morning, but they do this bit where they play a recording from nature and mix it in with some classical music. It could be monkeys, or birds, or ice creaking in Antarctica, but this morning it was a recording of an Icelandic geyser exploding, mixed with Strauss! I have never heard anything quite like it, there was a minute or two of squelching and lapping followed by a soggy eruption, then some more rhythmic squelching, slurping and erupting, before the music from ‘2001 a Space Odyssey’ combined perfectly with the explosion. Well you get my drift. Not quite what you expect from Radio 3 at 8:30am on a Sunday morning, but it did bring a smile to my face.
What an interesting start to the day!
If you want to listen to the Icelandic geyser/Strauss mix, it’s available on iPlayer from 1:23:19. Go on, you know you want to!
Consulting Hannah 