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Back to index of Nerve 20 - Summer 2012
Fireweed*
By Sandra
Gibson (Late June 2012)
Image by Wayne Blackledge
On the Wing of a Summer's Day
8.00 am. Etched high in the ice blue sky, the early song of the silver-voiced finch cuts through the clanking of the refuse lorry and the rubbery thud of the bins.
10.10 am. A crow flies towards the conifer trees, his serrated wings a black threat; his warning a rasp from a grit-lined throat.
1.30 pm. How strident is the haunting sea-call of the gull, wheeling white in the warm storm wind to an urban cliff. There she sits on a sill, rubbing her beak from side to side across breast feathers, the ridiculous feet so much at variance with her plaintive sea-yearning.
4.25 pm. Do the ferns quiver or the cat? The blackbird fires a staccato shriek from the guttering whilst his mate scuttles along the ground - one wing caped in feigned injury - to lure the cat away from the nest. But Tiger has settled on the dry warm soil near the bamboo. The pewter clouds pass without issue.
8.15 pm. This golden hour echoes hot between the terracotta walls. Someone has chalked a crescent moon against the azure sky where swifts appear from high cloud like silent fighter planes, flickering their curved wings and gliding and disappearing and re-appearing and rolling smooth as ball bearings. A bony-faced boy rockets past the gate on a skate board, tearing leaves and shouting, "Engerland, Engerland!"
9.00 pm. Wood pigeons are soothing the world with their mellow cooing.
10.35 pm. Moths hover: fragments of cloth over the honeysuckle, just discernible in the lingering light.
11.05 pm. In navy blue sky, a procession of five golden lanterns……and once again we miss the warm summer sound of the cuckoo.
To read other Fireweed columns click here
Also known as Rose Bay Willow Herb, the prolific wild flower called Fireweed, five feet tall with spikes of magenta flowers, cheers the hearts of those whose cityscape has become a bomb site or whose buildings have been cleared by machine. The dormant seeds spring to life after destructive events such as forest or man-made fires, hence the name, Fireweed. This occasional column will celebrate the persistence of wildlife in urban conditions.
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