Saturday 1 August 2009

Sailing & meeting different species (in Norfolk)

Without any airs or graces, my parents, on holiday in Norfolk, rented a longboat to sail on for a day. It was a fun time of just being “me” and taking time out with my family.

There were plenty of moments of fun piloting, working out routes and enjoying the feel of cruising along. We saw the houses of the rich, and admired the buildings, and saw herons standing stock still in the water, and ducks pushing themselves ahead out of our way at the last minute, silly things.

I enjoyed letting creation speak to us of our powerful, artistic, meticulously inventive and providential creator. At a brilliant wildlife place, check out how close I got to the tiger - and the gibbons, crocs, alligators, peacocks and hornbills too!
Sadly the bizarre “red panda” was photo-shy, and I only saw a glimpse of the whole thing walking along a branch high in a tree, before the pair retreated further into the foliage.

How do we respond to such marvellous creatures? Fragile and cute, elusive and elegant, majestic and proud, bold and playful - they seem to have personalities all their own. I guess really that’s us trying to make them more familiar and comfortable…

And I guess we tend to respond by sharing the joy with one another we get when we see these creatures recognise us, or, when we see them living in happiness and comfort and interacting with their fellow creatures. Or we become curious wanting to understand all about their alien way of life.

Or we take more pictures!

More tomorrow – and I managed to finish a poem I’ve been working on so that will be posted here soon, too.

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