Doing a walk.

I went out into the countryside yesterday to go for a pointless walk in the countryside with my mum and my sister. I'm not really into walking for walking's sake, I like it to have a point - going somewhere, taking pictures, disposing of a body, that sort of thing.

It was mildly diverting, there were dozens of cute lambs and the sun was shining, enabling me to put a dent in my empassioned paleness. The undoubted highlight (after getting home and having a nice cup of coffee) was sitting in a bird hide. There was a sign as you went in saying 'quiet please' in massive letters. I wasn't sure whether this was to add to the atmosphere, help nervous birds (it could have been some kind of halfway house) or trick the animals into coming closer.

My sister somehow translated this amongst her addled synapses as 'whispering is for losers', giving a clarion call to interesting wildlife to hurry the hell off to the other side of the pond. We saw a coot and some Canada geese. I mean, really. There's a fountain in town that would have at least twelve of either at any one time, they're the drunk-students-on-a-Saturday-night of the pond world, they're ubiquitous, they're everywhere, although less with the vomiting.

I commune with nature seldom enough that I would like it to put on an occasional show when I stop by, standard fare is just not enough. I wanted to see a gaggle of perch doing synchronised swimming and a brace of kingfishers doing loop-the-loops and spelling out my name in a flurry of wings and blue.

It reminded me of being in Germany, that blessed period in my life where I did regular exercise and went cycling all over the Bavarian and Baden-Wurrtembergian (I'm sure it's a word) countryside. I felt at one with nature, I enjoyed going out and soaking up a foreign land, taking pictures and feeling all spiritual and that. I've been full of reminiscence this past week or two and vitamins don't help - I think over the next few days my posts will mainly be about events that stick in my mind from places I've been. A distraction, perhaps, from the nothing that's happening in the places I am. Fun times.