Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Being Out of the Mainstream.

There were two women outside the supermarket today. One kept opening her mouth and making strange noises, while the other watched her intently and nodded now and then. I think they must have had some other-worldly origin. Europe, I expect.

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There’s a heavy fog descending on The Shire tonight. The high land on the far side of the valley was just about visible when I set out for my walk, but it had disappeared by the time I got back. Away from the pub and the houses, there was only still, clammy, vaporous air and darkness. I like that.

And there was a cock pheasant cackling unseen in a field on the east side of Mill Lane. That’s the side where the land climbs to the haunted copse on the rise in Church Lane. (I swear there’s something in there. It spooked me good and proper one night.) What I found odd was that several other pheasants appeared to be answering it from down by the river, but then I realised that the sound was softer and appeared to echo the original call exactly. Presumably, that’s what it was: an echo. So what was it echoing from? The mist? I never knew that sound could echo from mist. Did you?

And somebody came out of the Lady B’s house to drop something into a wheelie bin just as I was approaching. I was singing at the time, so I stopped. Wouldn’t want to give the place a bad reputation.

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