A Charm of Goldfinches

I found a feather, this morning.  It was lying on the ground on the well trodden grass track that we walk along with Merlin.  The track surrounds a field of tall grass and thistles; the grass has gone golden and the seed heads swirl around as the wind blows.  The thistles are in flower and attract the white marbled butterflies we have been so admiring.  They are also liked by goldfinches which every now and then appear - in charms - to feed on the seeds at the base of the flowers.  This feather, I think, belonged to a goldfinch.  

The Robert McFarlane book 'The Lost Words' is filled with paintings of goldfinches (see Extra), in the foreword he says 'It [the book] is told in gold, the gold of the goldfinches that fit through its pages in charms - and it holds not poems but spells of many kinds that might just, by the old, strong magic of being spoken aloud, unfold dreams and songs, and summon lost words back into the mouth and the mind's eye'.  What a lovely sentiment.  I am hopeful that the children that walk their dogs around the field of grass and thistles will love the goldfinches as much as I and pass on the story of their charms.