online: 28 january 2010 modified: 28, january 2010 28 january 2010 among water birds and other beings
pond 1
...sitting by pond 1 in the cold... among five Canada geese each of whom is pecking at short grass a few metres away... one or two come even closer... daylight is already ending... one goose stands upright and begins honking at which the others cease eating and walk about 20 metres before they resume pecking... the surface of the pond is occupied by 6 of the swans... the cygnets have shed almost all their grey feathers and they will soon be driven away by the father swan... 2 or 3 must have flown already...
..night is beginning and the lights in the houses across the water shine brightly in the near darkness as one of the geese begins honking again... then they all change direction and resume pecking... and moving slowly towards me...
...today i again found it difficult to leave my warm flat but now i am out i am glad to be here despite mud and cold and the absence of people this wintry evening... ducks begin calling as one of them chases another and i remain ignorant of the significance or purpose of the cries and actions of these water birds...
...i get up now to walk to Parliament Hill before complete darkness... but after stopping to look at the water and reflected trees in pond 2 i changed my mind and sought the warmth and light of a cafe where i am now completing this writing in warm air and to the recorded sound of someone singing in the alternative world of popular music in which everyone sings of being in love or of feeling sad at it's absence...
...i pause to sip some camomile tea in this cafe bakery in which the employees are young educated people who uncomplainingly accept work in what's now called service industry and is surely not what their education prepared them for... a huge cultural change that was not foreseen by anyone inside or outside the think tanks or the education departments (themselves as unforeseen as they are ineffective perhaps?)...
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