mmmender
May-19-08, 5:14 AM
From Simon's myspace.com blog:
going for a walk has changed quite dramatically over the years...
i used to walk with my head bowed, uninterested in meeting the gaze of others, wary of engaging in any kind of social communication.
as the years wore on, my head remained aimed towards the ground, through slouching, a desire to avoid dog crap and to cast admiring glances at my shoes..
only recently though as i have entered what cultural commentators call middle age (how funny that is, that we should also be embracing spread at this time, i LOVE spread...nutella especially), has my head moved up on my walks...
as i have a very greedy labrador (there does NOT exist a labrador that isnt greedy so i didnt really need to add that adjective in there, but for those of you who only like cats or gerbils, maybe the additional info was useful), i have to watch out for the unexpected sprints towards prams where unsuspecting infants holding a rusk may be in grave danger of having it removed from their tiny little fingers, or even from their hungry mouths-this HAS happened i shamefully admit..(this is the dog i am describing by the way, not me!),
and also i have to check out where the deer are (oh yes didnt i mention it?? we have deer on our walks dontcha know!!), cos the labrador, not the brightest of hound, also thinks of the deer as a bigger dog sort of thing, who wants to play chase, as opposed to a scary, beady-eyed protective monster with two sharp trees sticking out of its head that is only too ready to spear any cheerful and stupid retriever types that might fancy their chances!
so my head has been working its way up from ground to horizon and this weekend it even soared skywards as a beautiful encounter occured. That curious woody drilling sound that happens occasionally on my walks in the park, which i always HOPE to be a woodpecker but is usually someone drilling, startled me in the silence of my walk on Sunday. It was a cloudy overcast day, drizzly even, and i was staring off into the distance, wondering how great it must be to be a dog, when the drill came on...determined to find the source which seemed SO close to me, i looked up, as i have done countless times to no avail, and THERE, in the tree, on the tree i should say was this fuckin woodpecker!!! black with a bit of white and a bright red tail, there he was just 15 foot from my face, drilling his little hole into the tree. He then jumped up(or flew up? i guess it wasnt really a jump but it looked like it,) onto a branch and just disappeared again. By now the dog had run back from wherever she was and was also staring up at the tree wondering what the fuck i was looking at...well anyhow i was so happy that i had finally saw one. i mean, i am sure if david attenborough is reading this, (no, i think he subscribes to my blogs you know!!) he wont be very impressed, but i am still in awe of it....
i guess if you were expecting a tale about meeting Prince or something, this was a vague disappointment but maybe not...
going for a walk has changed quite dramatically over the years...
i used to walk with my head bowed, uninterested in meeting the gaze of others, wary of engaging in any kind of social communication.
as the years wore on, my head remained aimed towards the ground, through slouching, a desire to avoid dog crap and to cast admiring glances at my shoes..
only recently though as i have entered what cultural commentators call middle age (how funny that is, that we should also be embracing spread at this time, i LOVE spread...nutella especially), has my head moved up on my walks...
as i have a very greedy labrador (there does NOT exist a labrador that isnt greedy so i didnt really need to add that adjective in there, but for those of you who only like cats or gerbils, maybe the additional info was useful), i have to watch out for the unexpected sprints towards prams where unsuspecting infants holding a rusk may be in grave danger of having it removed from their tiny little fingers, or even from their hungry mouths-this HAS happened i shamefully admit..(this is the dog i am describing by the way, not me!),
and also i have to check out where the deer are (oh yes didnt i mention it?? we have deer on our walks dontcha know!!), cos the labrador, not the brightest of hound, also thinks of the deer as a bigger dog sort of thing, who wants to play chase, as opposed to a scary, beady-eyed protective monster with two sharp trees sticking out of its head that is only too ready to spear any cheerful and stupid retriever types that might fancy their chances!
so my head has been working its way up from ground to horizon and this weekend it even soared skywards as a beautiful encounter occured. That curious woody drilling sound that happens occasionally on my walks in the park, which i always HOPE to be a woodpecker but is usually someone drilling, startled me in the silence of my walk on Sunday. It was a cloudy overcast day, drizzly even, and i was staring off into the distance, wondering how great it must be to be a dog, when the drill came on...determined to find the source which seemed SO close to me, i looked up, as i have done countless times to no avail, and THERE, in the tree, on the tree i should say was this fuckin woodpecker!!! black with a bit of white and a bright red tail, there he was just 15 foot from my face, drilling his little hole into the tree. He then jumped up(or flew up? i guess it wasnt really a jump but it looked like it,) onto a branch and just disappeared again. By now the dog had run back from wherever she was and was also staring up at the tree wondering what the fuck i was looking at...well anyhow i was so happy that i had finally saw one. i mean, i am sure if david attenborough is reading this, (no, i think he subscribes to my blogs you know!!) he wont be very impressed, but i am still in awe of it....
i guess if you were expecting a tale about meeting Prince or something, this was a vague disappointment but maybe not...