The last month and a half has been a strange one. I've been off work, recovering from surgery and having to take it very easy whilst I healed up...but that's by the by, that's just the reason whilst I've been away from work and home during the day.
apart from developing an unhealthy fascination with the daily soap 'Doctors' I've had the chance to rewind, relax, think and retune meself.
To keep myself from completely atrophying, I've been trying to get out and about when I can and Denise and I have made many trips to wildlife and nature reserves, animal parks and other such places. This has helped feed one of my current distractions of taking digital photographs which I've had since I got a mobile phone with a camera. Some of my lucky efforts have made it onto FickleBarf occasionally, or on to my flickr, website and all that (being http://www.flickr.com/photos/73433109@N07/ and http://synapticrefuge.net/ a slow work in progress....)
Now, maybe it's just that time of the evening or summat, but thinking about this whilst watching another chris packham nature programme on the telly it struck me how bloody lucky I've been lately.
In the last month, I've watched with wonder and delight field mice just a few feet away from me nibbling at sunflower seeds I've put out for them to eat.
I've had the pleasure of being surprised by a couple of the frogs from the pond in the garden deciding to venture into the house and explore.
Dunnocks, pied wagtails, goldfinches and other small and not so small birds have become regular visitors because of the food we put out for them, as well as a couple of visits from a sparrow hawk, grateful no doubt for the lunch opportunity they provided. Today, we watching the courtship ritual of a pair of crested grebes, as well as goldeneyes, wrens, coots and the rest. Later in the evening, coming across a merlin, a female kestrel and a couple of buzzards, along with boxing hares, black wild rabbits and a herd of deer including one magical looking white deer amongst them.
I can complain, can't we all eh.....my health has been a worry these last few years, a couple of very close calls, lots of pain hospitals appointments medication and the rest, and so it seems I'm no longer the fit healthy vibrant young man I once was. Ah well, so what! I'm still here. Older, not so wiser but I have a few tales to tell now. In a few days I'll be back in the harness and in the thick of it all and no doubt distracted with trivialities and nonsense which will dull my senses and blunt my compassion. So, to remind myself whilst its still fresh in my head, these word are here.....yes, work sucks, the government are trying to destroy all that is good in society, the environment we live in seems a battle and a fight and conflict between good and evil but....big but....life is bloody well here and now and good and I'm lucky to be still a part of it all cos it could be oh so different.
not so much 'if life gives you lemons, make lemonade' just......I've seen worse, which means this is better and that's gotta be a good thing and I am choosing to believe that is so.
just my tuppence worth....
