I like the Cuckoo Clock maker on the repair shop, comes from Witney.
By way of nothing in particular.... back in the spring I was up on Dragon Hill, Uffington and got chatting to a Spanish organic farm worker... he had with him a stunning beauty from London, English girl, mixed race.
Earlier I'd heard a cuckoo in the nearby copse... now cuckoos, along with many birds have become a rarity, I asked had they heard it? Lass says... what sound does it make?
Didn't now what to say... made me a bit sad... apparently Spanish for cuckoo is cu cu.
O blithe New-comer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?
While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear;
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off, and near.
Though babbling only to the Vale
Of sunshine and of flowers,
Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.
Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing,
A voice, a mystery;
The same whom in my school-boy days
I listened to; that Cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.
To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen.
And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.
O blessèd Bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, faery place;
That is fit home for Thee!
