Friday 26.08.2011

A still, mild evening, the light going much sooner now, and - praise be - the grass in the woods has been cut so we can reclaim our walks without need of a panga (as in machete, not the small ocean-dwelling fish of the same name which I only just discovered existed when I checked on the word panga that had suddenly sprung into my head despite it being over 40 years since I first heard it used when I was in Uganda).
I digress.
The air was slightly damp and held the sweet smell of the cut grass as we tramped round, Dog 2`s first proper intro to the woods and very satisfactory she found them, full of interesting scents and sounds.

And, as we came back down the hill,the grey clouds now tinged with pink,

a flock of 40 or so lapwings wheeled overhead: after years of only seeing the odd one or two it was a most heartening sight.


This time last week I was in the parallel universe that is festival-land: Beautiful Days lived up to its name, a huge extended picnic with good music, much jollity and random eccentricity and perhaps best of all huge quantities of goodwill. To be recommended.

And meanwhile back at the ranch........

....isn`t that a beautiful sight.