Goldfinches

It has been snowing. I sit at the table in the kitchen and look out of the window. Of course it is beautiful, and the birds come.

Three, four, then five goldfinches arrive on some uncut seed heads. They work (eat) quietly and carefully with their tweezer like beaks.

I get that image in my head, sit for a while longer then go and do some work.

The latin name for goldfinch is Carduelis carduelis. I don’t need to know this but I like to write it down (it would be in italics but my typewriter doesn’t do them). I read also that the name for a group of goldfinches is a charm (or chirm) and this seems very suitable.

table

The new table had history. The top was new wood (ply) and it was covered with red formica. Rectangular, with enough depth for two children to reach across and touch fingertips. The table top was supported by the most unusual legs. (the following description is from memory and may be changed at a later date).

Made of cast iron, they could be described more as supports than legs, with a strengthening arch between the verticals. There may or may not be words, (the name of a company?) set into the hard alloy of iron, carbon and silicone.  Black, ferrous, or painted? Strong, solid, industrial, functional. Unmoveable and unchangeable (it says so in the Oxford English Dictionary). Their H shaped footprints reveal themselves on the red and yellow chequered floor many years later.

Something you think is unbreakable can be brittle indeed.