I appear to have been a little quieter than usual here recently. That is not a lack of getting out and about, simply a lack of time to sit in front of a PC to tell you all about it. Sorry about that and here is a little tale to help me get back into the swing of posting...
This morning I took Hazel for a walk before I went to work. As usual, I did not dress for the walk as I was already perfectly attired when I woke up. This morning, I decided that we would walk in some woods about 5 miles from home. I have walked here many times in the past (these are the woods where I once met a naked jogger) though not frequently in the past year or so as the ground is often very wet here and in the summer we have had so far it has not seemed worthwhile driving here just to wade through sticky gloop.
This morning it was 15C and dry although there was fairly heavy cloud cover when I arrived at the car park at 04:38. I got out of the car, opened the boot and let Hazel run free (usually I have her on a lead for a while to make sure I am well away from traffic but here there is no need as the lane to the car park is so quiet that it is not an issue).
We had a really enjoyable, warm walk through the dawn chorus, seeing a number of owls, a fox and a few deer as well as the usual woodland critters that I expect to see. Hazel spent most of the time trying to intercept squirrels before they could reach trees they could climb. As usual, she failed miserably but enjoyed trying.
Around half past six, as I was approaching the car, I heard a twig break behind me and, looking over my shoulder, saw a jogger with a couple of dogs coming up behind me. He was about 30 yards away and so I decided that he had probably already seen me and there was no point in dressing so I continued, greeting him with a cheerful “Good morning” as he passed. A few yards further on he stopped and called for his dogs then looked at me and asked “Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?” in a rather sniffy I-want-to-be-offended sort of tone.
I replied that I did not need them, which seemed to introduce an element of confusion to his life and after a couple of seconds, during which it seemed he was trying to remember how to breathe, he said “My wife walks through here”.
I don’t think my response of “And?...” was quite what he expected. He stood with his mouth open for a second or two and then, apparently at a complete loss for words, turned and jogged on, calling his dogs as he went.
I don’t particularly enjoy being caught out like that; it always offends me that my craft failed badly enough for someone to get so close before I knew he was there (it’s times like that when I really miss Taz, he’d have told me much earlier). However, the confusion introduced to the joggers brain made it all worthwhile and had me chuckling all the way home.
Have fun,
Ian.