The other day was the sort where you can only find one glove. I’d been working late the night before so I was tired and therefore grumpy, and when I found the other glove (in the jam cupboard, don’t ask me) it was torn on one finger. By this time we were late and we barely got the boys to school in time via several Mercedes infested ‘traffic calmed’ streets. Despite the late working I was still behind schedule, and I had a theatre workshop to prepare for that evening; the job hunting wasn’t going well (although there’s been a bit of progress since, which I will hopefully, possibly hear more on soon); and it was raining with a damp grumpy drizzle that chills the air and your bone marrow. And the farmers had had a ploughing festival the day before where one of the main events was apparently “See who can leave the biggest pile of mud** on the cycleways”. Grump, grump grump.
Which would have made for a bog-awful morning except that:
Youngest Son gave me a huge smile and hug as picked him up out of bed and held on to me like a limpet for thirty seconds before being distracted by his advent calender.
On the way to work I was passing a tree and spotted a buzzard was sitting on one of the low branches, a bare two metres from me. I’m not sure which one of us was more startled by this, but for thirty seconds we stared at each other before he decided I wasn’t going to keel over and provide him with an easy meal, which I’m glad about because frankly, buzzards are pretty big when viewed from two metres, and flapped off to a tree further away.
*The nearest I reckon I’ll get to “Dances with Wolves”.
**I’m going to optimistically assume it was ‘Mud’.
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
December 17, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Ken B
I had a close encounter also, mine was with very large deer. When you are riding by your self noises are always louder, things appear larger, I think your senses are heightened. It is always darker outside when you are buy your self. I also happened to lost on that ride that I seen the deer. (Stone hinge ride this fall blog post.)
December 19, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Andy in Germany
I well remember a similar experience in Germany on my first winter here when I wandered into a snowy forest in the dark and got utterly spooked by the deer running in the trees. The y were smaller deer, just about wolf sized in fact…
December 18, 2011 at 9:21 am
Nick
There is, apparently, not far from where I live in NL a buzzard that specialises in dive-bombing cyclists and removing small clumps of hair from their heads with its claws. So beware, there’s beastliness in the beauty sometimes!
December 19, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Frits B
Only in the breeding season so I think Andy is safe at this time of year. There used to be an eagle owl (slightly bigger than a buzzard and twice the weight) near Cologne which embarrassed passers by by sweeping down on them at night and lifting their hats or caps. Turned out to be a hand-reared escapee that simply tried to establish contact with humans, but was relocated to a less populated area, for its own safety.
December 19, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Andy in Germany
Nick: I think Disgruntled over in scotland has had a similar experience. I have a great respec ofr anything with tha many pointy bits, don’t worry.
Frits B: Oh, great, so my hair is safe until spring, that’s reassuring, I think.