19 November 2014 –
They flew out of the shrubery as I got out of the car. Goldfinches, chattering to each-other in that particular goldfinchy manner they have, bobbing away down the bank. Today the location is local because time is short and the weather forecast uncertain. Up beyond the wide back avenues of Pollokshields, past the mansion homes of footballers and television celebrities, there is an open space overlooking the M77 and beyond to Mosspark and Bellahouston. It is a good place to see unobstructed skies, and this is where the sun came out.
There is a rare sky that sometimes is seen when, as today, fair weather moves in from the south. It can be electrifying when low sun floods the foreground with warm saturated colour and the departing background cloud appears dark in contrasting cool shaded light. The effect usually lasts for just a few minutes before the cloud either rolls back (to gloom) or slides away (to full sun). Today it rolled back again, and I was waiting for the light to return when the goldfinches took up a conversational residence in a larch tree above me. I plugged a directional microphone into my recorder – only to find the microSD slot empty, the card still in its reader back home. Can’t record. Shouldn’t happen to a pro…