Can Spring be far behind?
“In the darkest nights of winter,” my Nana always told me, “watch the skies and listen for the robins.”
I mentioned that very thing, in my blog post last week.
She was right, of course. Again. Because, oh hey, look who’s splashing in my birdbath!
Rarely have I ever seen robins in this area, and only once before in my own garden. He perched on my soul fence for a single afternoon, and then vanished.
Such cheerful birds, these harbingers of spring. I’m glad for their company, however long they choose to stay.
Seems Edward Jenner was equally enthralled by their visits. Here, his love letter to these red-chested beauties:
Address to a Robin
Come, sweetest of the feathered throng,
And soothe me with thy plaintive song;
Come to my cot, devoid of fear,
No danger shall await thee here…
Hop o’er my cheering hearth, and be
One of my peaceful family
Then soothe me with thy plaintive song,
Thou sweetest of the feathered throng.
–Edward Jenner (physician, musician, balloonist, and inventor of modern-day vaccinations, 1749-1823)