Nature-ally Beautiful.

There is something just so magnificent about nature.

I understand why the greats like Frost and Wordsworth spent so much time and effort creating some form of beautiful lyric about a single flower or creature. The other day as I sat and ate my lunch at work, I was quietly surprised by a moment of absolute serenity.

The air was calm and quiet; the sun cast a gentle layer of warmth over the trees and grass. I watched as two squirrels flirted around a plant pot in the far corner of the garden. They reminded me of a young teenage couple, when that first relationship is so fresh and so new, so innocent. They darted and dashed, leapt and lingered between the hedge and the pot. It took but a moment where their tiny little eyes met for them to proceed to copulate, at which point a small smile graced my face.

The substance which I was eating escapes my memory.

As I took another bite and returned my gaze to the plant pot, I was distracted by two butterflies that seemed to be floating so effortlessly through the air, the flashes of white and black darting across the grass and along the trees. They directed my attention upwards, at which point a glorious glimmer of orange and blue caught my eye, and ignited some sort of curiosity in me that I haven't felt in a long time. As I struggled to locate where the colours had flown to, I was strangely calm yet excited and intrigued. Searching the branches and leaves above me, the colours flew again, this time to a small tree in the sun opposite my seat.

There I got to see it properly.

Only a few feet away on a branch, was an absolutely stunning Paradise Flycatcher. The glint from the sun lit up this beautiful bird, the brilliant blue and the length of orange tail shimmering gently, almost as if it was magical. The few moments it sat there looking around seemed to last, just taking in its breathtaking beauty at such a close distance was an incredible feeling.

I only wish I had my camera.

Suddenly, as if he had seen his prize, he took flight and headed straight for me, my pulse quickened as he did so and just at the last moment with a tip of the wing he flew up onto a branch just above the table’s umbrella. It took me a moment to collect myself, the blue and orange flashing in my mind. I lost him for a few minutes; he seemed to be hiding in the trees. After a short while I figured my lucky sighting had run its course, and resumed my watch over the flirty squirrels.

Lo and behold, I was wrong.

Igniting the golden sun once again, he flew across from a tree to land on the branch where I had first seen him, concealed by the browning leaves but still visible. It took me a moment to realise what was going on, but once I did I found myself overcome with a mild sense of satisfaction and jealousy.

There was a female.

Just as brightly blue and orange as he, she was perched on a branch just higher than his, the leaves providing a better camouflage. I watched for ages, as the Courting Flycatchers danced around the tree tops, splashing the mesmerising blue and orange wherever they went. She was playing hard-to-get no less and he, being simply male, was infatuated. Following every move from tree to tree, branch to branch, the courtship was a beautiful blend of dance and colour.

In a moment like that, so serene and so perfect, where two beautiful creatures are so involved with nothing but each other, I simply sighed.


I simply smiled.



Till next time,

TT