I have always enjoyed the poem, the Raven by Edgar Alan Poe very deep and dark but also very rhythmical and the alliteration, that is, the repetitive word sounds are very soothing and cajoling. Its mysterious and frightening with overtones of death without the mention of that. There is a reference to a girl called Lenore who is never more! You can listen to it here if you are so inclined.

Whenever I see a Raven I think of this poem. I have no idea why or how I know it, I just do…… perhaps I learnt it in a previous life? It's that kind of poem as well. Nothing too mysterious about a Raven really though, just a clever resourceful bird that is more intelligent than all the others around it so it tends to win out.

I went back again today and I learned more about it and "it's game". I had said that I thought there is possible a breeding pair but I have changed my mind now because I am quite sure that when the bird collects the eggs it takes them off to cache them before returning seconds later for another. I notice that it knows where there is an egg, having flown off with one a minute or less earlier and then when it returns it purposefully goes straight to the spot where it had seen an egg on it's previous visit and so on and so on. When it has taken all the eggs it knows about, it will return and circle above looking for any that it hadn't spotted previously. Today though I saw it at it's nastiest, I actually saw it try and grab a Wood Pigeon from the fence line. This was a massive surprise. There was a hell of a commotion and feathers flew everywhere, a pair of Carrion Crows who are nesting in a nearby tree came in immediately to mob the Raven and whether it dropped the pigeon at that point or whether it hadn't got it properly I don't know. I am not sure even if the pigeon escaped but I didn't see it in the Ravens beak as it flew in to the nearby fields. Then when it returned to the chicken enclosure I saw it trying to grab one of the hens! Quite sure if there was a sickly hen it would be taken immediately. By the way, the Raven towers above the chickens in size.

I have been unwell this last few day with a burst blood vessel in my eye, so I didn't stay too long.