Country diary: The tawny owl call is as mysterious as night-time itself

Buxton, Derbyshire: Under an extraordinary starlit night, there is nothing else to hear but these notes of utmost purityAround 2am, it's a regular habit of mine to wake and go downstairs to read before sleeping until morning. Currently it's The Crossing, the middle volume in Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy. It sounds inconvenient, but the hour has the beauty of being purged of all distraction, so that one is briefly alert and mindful of important things.On this occasion, I was captured by the extraordinary starlit night and the sounds of tawny owl, so I sat outside on the bench. The bird, a male, was calling from the woods that are visible as a deeper darkness on the northern horizon from our front door. Continue reading...