They sweetly did rejoice

On Wednesday we got snow here in the District They Call Columbia. It started around 0900 and by late afternoon it was replaced by rain. I am so glad I didn’t have to commute in it.

But throughout the day, my patio was visited by dozens of birds, so every hour I tossed out a couple more fistfuls of seed to make their stop worthwhile. Sparrows, cardinals, juncos, wrens, bluebirds. 

(Yes, bluebirds.)

It was just lovely to see them all out there hopping about and no squabbling. Yesterday, even the blue jays got along with everyone else.

So today’s Advent music is “The Carol of the Birds”, which is from Catalonia. Throughout his self-imposed exile from Franco’s Spain, cellist Pablo Casals closed his concerts with this piece; he believed it to be the most beautiful tune ever created, and its theme of peace—of all the birds getting along—seems particularly relevant right now.

I first heard “The Carol of the Birds” from a Joan Baez recording, so that’s what I’m giving you.