January 2018 was a particularly difficult month for me. My brother passed away so suddenly and unexpectedly on the 5th and so the rest of the month, apart from a week in Bulgaria that had been prior planned, has been spent taking care of his estate, arranging the funeral and doing those awful jobs that have to be done. Thank goodness I have had such wonderful help and support from my wife, my aunt & uncle and many friends, old and new. I don’t know what I would have done without you all.
When someone passes away unexpectedly and without any warning, it is so difficult to come to terms with the situation. You are simply not prepared and you are not given any time to say your goodbyes. Despite the fact that my brother and I were not exactly close and we had not had a lot to do with each other during the past 20 odd years, we were after all brothers and brothers can never be parted. His wife passed away very suddenly in 2015 and he never, ever got over it. So I’ve done a lot of thinking during the past few weeks and come to the conclusion that life is just to short. I’m very fortunate, as I can hold on to some very precious memories of our time together as children and those memories will never fade away.
Whilst tying up some loose ends with my late brothers estate, an opportunity presented itself on Friday 2nd February 2018 and I was able to spend some time with the Derbyshire Hawfinches at Darley Dale. What a great way to spend a few hours and take my mind off things, as not only are these birds stunning to look at, they have been very reliable and site faithful for a number of weeks now at the church yard in the village. They are presenting a unique opportunity to view them at close quarters and I’m not surprised that they have been so site faithful, when I saw the quantity of Yew berries on offer, Hawfinches simply love eating Yew berries.
The following photographs are dedicated to the memory of my late brother. The last time we spoke, he was very complimentary about my 2018 Photo Calendar that I gave him, just before Christmas, so I know he would have thoroughly enjoyed seeing these Hawfinch photos, as much as I enjoyed taking them.
Hawfinch – Darley Dale, Derbyshire – February 2018 – Tony Davison©
