Sounds of Summer

My father's going steadily deafer; it's noticeable how he finds it difficult to join in conversations, these days. He first remarked upon it when he was about my age, so I suppose that I should worry about my own hearing, but much of his ear damage was caused by gunfire during the war.
Even so, I do find that noisy pubs and clubs make it difficult to pick out a single thread of conversation amongst the general background hubbub.

But it's birdsong that I would miss as much as anything else. I can hear a blackbird singing outside in the garden now, and it's just so relaxing. Some birds just spell out summer and their song can instantly make me feel better. Urban swifts, screaming high above us on a late summer evening; larks in clear blue sky on moorland; robins competing with each other in hedges.

And now, listening, I can pick out others from the city traffic and the rumble of the occasional lorry: there is the "tseep" of tits and a couple of wood-pigeons hooting to themselves. They make living in the city much better.