I wandered lonely as a cloud

I’ve not posted much recently as I was busy with something else. Or rather, I was busy trying to avoid the something else. Very little has happened recently – I’ve been frozen in the headlights of life, trying to avoid thinking about anything too much and failing.

The highlight of my weekend was going for a walk in the park.

Walking round the park on your own feels a bit conspicuous as the park is dominated by families, who the parents of whom look suspiciously or pityingly at lone women. I felt that if I’d had a dog with me, it would be given my amble some validity, but nonetheless I wandered about with my camera and ipod, trying not to look as if I was there to mend a broken heart or steal a child (which I wasn’t).

There is a small “zoo” in our local park. I’ve put zoo in inverted commas because it seems too grand a term for a collection of ducks, pheasants, guinea pigs, goats and sheep, with a bit of exotic added by the rhea (a bit like an ostrich) and the mara (like large rabbits with short ears!).

I had gone with the main intention of visiting the pygmy goat, who was very friendly and curious but separated from me by two sets of fence and proved difficult to photograph in his full glory.

There was a sign by the guinea pigs that made me feel sad as people have obviously been dumping their unwanted rodents into the enclosure. Surely it isn’t too much of a commitment to look after a small guinea pig, and (without wanting to be too harsh), they don’t exactly live for a long time, so surely people can just put up with them? But apparently not.


I indulged myself with a rum & raisin ice cream. There was quite a queue for ice creams considering it had just turned March and wasn’t exactly warm. But as everyone else seemed to be having one, I thought I’d treat myself too. It was only after I’d bought it, that I realised other people were buying them for their children, not themselves, but I don’t see why ice creams (like swings) should just be the domain of children.


I tarried a while, eating my cone and photographing the ducks and pheasants, before the cold got the better of me and I headed home.

I was going to post what I was listening to during this, but my ipod seemed obsessed with alternating between Bob Dylan and Beth Orton, depsite having hundreds of other artists to choose from.