Canals... but no martians....

So, today while travelling between Ashby and market Bosworth we decided to have dinner by the canal.. I mean, why sit in some awful car park or main road lay by if there's somewhere better, that's even on a quicker route! So, while my oppo was phoning his mrs, I had a nice stroll while munching on cake baked to a milk free recipe by a certain young lady... which was lovely... the sunny towpath was soon shaded with dappled green light throughh the trees, and Ipaused, watching the dragonflies, whirligigs, and moorhens... In the peace and quiet I found a wrens nest, and surprised a brown sort-of stripy bird with a fairly long beak.. no idea what it was, but my friend at Polyolbion is looking into it... I seem to have been within nature a lot these days.. on saturday night I waas sitting aone in a field, waiting for parties of girl guides to come along.. I hasten to add I was manning a checkpoint for a night hike!! the most often asked question was whether I was afraid, all alone in the dark.. my reply was that i was not at all scared.. when asked to expand on my answer I replied that I was not scared for the simple reason that I was alone.....therefor ethere was no one about to harm me... also, as i mentioned a couple of times, i couldn't think of anything that could be in the fields that was scarier than me.. but i digress.... the main thing missing today was a canoe.... but i'm working on it!!reminds me of yet another anecdote.. while caoeing along the Wye many years ago, as a scout, one of our patrol leaders decided he was a bit cold in his canoe... so he lit his camp stove, and placed it in the bows.... unfortunately it melted through the hull, and he sank.. which just proves the old adage... you can't have you're kayak and heat it.. and with that, I think I'd better go... until we all paddle our own, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Avocets and Elephants....

The other day I went with my best friend and my son to a fairly local beaty spot, to do a spot of birdwatching.. which is always fun, even though I'm not as into it as young Matt is... but then he does work for Birdwatching magazine.. after the usual great jokes ( That gull -like bird gave me a funny tern, etc!) the conversation turned to avocets and elephants... which is admittedly strange.... but i see them as a symbol of my basic disappointment with life... let me explain.. i see myself as an incurable optimist, as you know, but i keep getting told that i'm a cross between Alan Partridge and Victor Meldrew... and I admit that i do seem to be a miserable old bugger sometimes... but as I told Matt, just because I'm miserable doesn't mean I'm not happy... he actually told me that on the surface I'm probably one of the happiest people he knows, but that deep down I make Morrisey look positively gay.... I just believe that disappointment is the natural state of human affairs, but like any good Taoist will tell you, this matters not... the best way to explain this is to take a look at that famous piece of Chinese artwork, The Vinegar Tasters.. as opposed to the vinegar tasers, which is something totally different... but I digress.. this picture, which to some is the pinnacle of Chinese symbolic art (although some believe that Willow Pattern holds that title, coming as it does from that famous beijing suburb, Stoke on Trent..) showsa three men licking their fingers around a barrel of vinegar... the firts man, who symbolises Kung Fu Tse (or Confucius if you'd rather.. ) has a sour expression on his face.... the second, who is apparently Buddha, looks bitterly at the varrel.. the third, Lao Tzu, is smiling.. but why the discrepancies?? Well, Confucius believed that the world was a sour place, to be tolerated and put into order... so therefor his core belief was that there was something wrong with the place.. Buddha believed that this world was a bitter place, to be escaped from asap.. but the Taoist Lao Tzu accepted that the world was both, and that that was the way things were, so why not make the best of it... the idea is, why curse vinegar fro being bitter and sour? That's what you expect of vinegar! If the vinegar is bitter and sour, smile.. you've got good vinegar! I think I cn see the point I'm trying to make.. but what of avocets, i hear you cry.. or maybe not.. well, the point is, and I've nothing against avocets (or indeed elephants for that matter..).. in fact,they are still one of my favourite birds.. but after looking ongingly at them in my Ladybird Book of Sea and Estuary Birds I was quite excited at the prospect of actually seeing one.. for some reason I was expecting them to be about the size of a heron... and was quite disappointed to find them a lot smaller....and the same with elephants... but i accept that the problem lay not with the creatures, but with my expectations of them... which is why I still like elephants, and avocets, and my disappointment has not made me all that unhappy.. it would just be silly to blame the avocet.. and it is a beautiful bird. but enough of my wittering.. the curlews are curlewing and the whippoorwills meeping, and it is time for bed.. so until all our avocets are like vinegar, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dippers, Doves, and dandruff....

The beard which is wise had a lovely walk in along the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border yesterday, along the beautiful river Dove... strangely enough, at the incredibly famous Dovedale, near Ilam... walking along the Staffs side to the stepping stones, we found said stones to be half underwater... but, if not for the central on being under six inches of fast flowing torrent, they would have been passable.... but with a twelve year old, it was not a good idea.... so, steps retraced, it was over the bridge, and along the dale... and, once the sun came out, a very beautiful day it was... we strooled through to Milldale, crossing the famous Viators Bridge, and then put ourselves in reverse, and went back through the dale, the return journey, as usual, seeming only half the distance... ther were buzzards and ravens aplenty (which will please my friend at Polyolbion...) and we saw one solitary dipper, plunging beneath the fast flowing Dove to reappear several times on its way upstream... but no doves, or even pigeons... although we did see one shot rabbit, one dead sheep, and one part mummified bunny... which just goes to show... a stark reminder that, no matter how peaceful and picturesque, even a place like Dovedale is a place of life, and therefore also a place of death... and, of course, it reminds us that in England at least, there are no wild places.... it is only the action of man, in industry and agriculture, that gives us Dovedale, The Peak District, the Yorkshire Moors, the lake District.... so remember, next time you see people objecting to quarrying, open cast mining, factory building.... if, hundreds of years ago, the same nay sayers had had their way, we would not have the Peak District.... the world always changes, and nothing man does is permanent... if we scar the earth today, time will repair the scar... in a few thousand years, the scar will be gone, or beautified.... grown over, and essential.... ah, I hear you say.. but what of the dandruff?? Well, suddenly finding myself to weigh only 15 stone 12, and not the 18 stone expected, all I can think of is that the Head and Shoulders has worked wonders... and with that, it is time to go... until all men realise that we are not so important that we can end a world, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!