Call Me An Ornithological Pedant...

...but.


I'm sure many readers will remember (and possibly have amongst their CDs or MP3s or whatever) Peter Gabriel warbling on about Solsbury Hill.

Mrs The Millbrooker and I have been away doing visiting in the Bath area over the last couple of days - plenty of witterings about that to come, of course - and during our brief sojourn we took a walk along the Kennet and Avon canal toward Bathampton.


The towpath affords a great view of Solsbury Hill (see shot above) which put the song into my head for much of the rest of the day.


One line of lyric has always stuck out, though, and I'm well aware of metaphor and artistic licence - honest, guv.

"Climbing up on Solsbury Hill,

I can see the city lights. 

Wind was blowing time stood still,

Eagle flew out of the night."

Mr Gabriel is quite right, Bath's sodium glare from atop the hill is very visible from atop the hill. What is more the wind might well have been blowing and time does sometimes seem to stand still.


Eagles, however, are unheard of in the area and are not nocturnal.


There, that's put the mildly eccentric WOMAD founder right; I'm sure he'll be more careful in future now he knows The Millbrooker is checking up on him.