Fluidity

 

I walked in the late afternoon yesterday, catching the last of the sun on the creek before it disappeared behind the fields. I went the chestnut tree way, and loaded up my pockets with smooth edible pebbles. We've found that if you slice through the skins and boil them for a few minutes they are relatively easy to peel. Relatively. Ha ha. It also helps if you are not too picky about the papery skin under the peel. I know you are supposed to find this bitter and unpalatable and spend ages scraping it all off, but frankly, once they're chopped up in soup, who cares? I don't mind it. I'm a heathen. I know.

I was thinking, as I rounded the bend and caught sight of the sea, how much I love living near the coast in the northern hemisphere. Everything changes every day - today the sun sets a few minutes earlier, and the tide rises a few minutes later - this walk at exactly the same time tomorrow will be different - and that's just the topography! I can't imagine living in a static landscape - where it is always sunny and the days are always a similar length. Although a bit of me is aghast that it is already dark at 530 - and that after the clocks go back on Sunday it will be an hour earlier than that, I'm glad it shifts and changes. Maybe I can too then.