Debbie Harry performs in my garden

I know a girl from a lonely street
Cold as ice cream but still as sweet
Dry your eyes Sunday girl

Last night I was sitting in the back garden, the dusk quickly descending, taking in the calm weather, the muggy night and the bats and moths flitting through the air. But there was something else that stole my attention, and that was Debbie Harry of Blondie, singing to me live in my garden. No kidding...

Over the past two years the following have sung live to me as I've sat in the garden... Simply Red, JLS, The Beach Boys, The Feeling, The Wanted (quiet at the back Stables, I know it isn't exactly The Clash or 999), and there is something special about having these acts do so. I'd better explain.

I live a mile away from Epsom race course. For each of the past three summers they have put on weekly evening performances from a variety of bands directly after a race meeting. You can go and watch the gig by buying a ticket and watching from the grandstands; you can sit on the downs and hear the whole thing for free but see very little; or you can sit in my garden and listen while inspecting the early evening visitors to the moth trap.

If it's a still evening, or the wind is from the southern sector, the sound is clear. From the north however and you can't hear a thing (Texas played earlier in the summer and I didn't catch a note). Last night I heard the encore very clearly indeed - 'Heart of Glass' and a bloody good version it was too. people who actually paid to go said it was rammed - and mainly populated by teenagers. For those of us who grew up with Blondie as one of the biggest pop acts in the world (1978 - 1980), it was comforting to think that a whole generation of kids are finding something in their music.

If you're wondering what this post has to do with the natural world, then I will happily admit to the fact that it has bugger all to do with birds, moths, plants, pan-listing, twitching, etc, etc, etc.

Even I have to admit, there is more to life...