online: 15 january 2006
modified: 14 january 2006

23 december 2005 while walking


15:35 Vale of Health pond... still air, not cold, amidst bare trees and silent houses with private lawns leading down to the water... 2 swans have been here for several months and there are more ducks and coots and seagulls than i remember seeing here this year...

...'no darling' says a woman to a child who is reluctant to go where the woman and a man are going... (i imagine that the child wants to stay by the water)

The still calm of the day and the leafless trees and dark reflections on the water and the two swans, floating motionless, 10 metres apart, all these and other details make a solemn picture...

And while i was writing that a German Shepherd dog ran past me at top speed straight into one of the lakeside gardens from which its owner got it back by carefully timed calls from strategic positions...

'how do you do it ?' i called,

'by encouragement' she said... 'he's full of energy today, he's not had a walk for several days'...

'me too!' i said, and decided to continue walking



...as i walk i see a red-haired woman with a man and i recall many red-heads , male and female, among my friends and relatives...

...then i walked along another solitary path past a seat inscribed thus:

Geoffrey Grant 1939-1989
so why, love, should we ever pray to live a century
the butterfly that flies a day has lived eternity

...and later, on the grass, beside a blown-down tree (snapped in half by the wind), is a copy of the Daily Mirror of 17th december 2005... the headline reads

HIT-RUN YOBS KILL GIRL, 5

a car mounted the pavement and knocked down the girl and her mother - a man who emerged from the wrecked car ran away


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