Passing Traffic.

I was out trimming my front hedge today. That’s the one adjacent to the lane, and so it affords the opportunity to watch the life of the Shire going about its daily business. It isn’t usually all that interesting, but today I was given a little lift by two brief encounters.

The first was the passing by of HT54, and today I got a wave. I don’t always get a wave from HT54, or at least if I do, it isn’t always patently evident. HT54 needs to be rather more effusive in its mode of waving. A handbrake turn would suit nicely, preferably a proper 360° one.

And then down the road came a group of three beings a-walking. The three consisted of a red haired woman leading a piebald nag, on the back of which sat a little blonde girl of around seven or eight. I’d seen the woman leading the nag up the road earlier towards the school, and so I asked the little human ‘Is that your taxi?’ She didn’t answer, but the horse stopped and turned its head to look at me.

‘My word,’ I said enthusiastically, ‘you’re a fine fellow, aren’t you?’ Or some such. (What do you say to horse which is looking at you sideways?)

The horse didn’t answer either, he just stood there looking at me sideways while the little human tapped his flanks with her heels. The horse ignored her entreaties. He wasn’t very tall, but I reckon he had some shire in his ancestry, and his voluminous chest was probably little impressed at being tapped by a pair of tiny human heels.

‘I think you’d better go now,’ I continued. ‘I think your human wants to move on.’

‘Oh, that’s all right,’ said the bigger human. ‘He’s always stopping and talking to people. He likes to stop and talk sometimes.’

This is encouraging. Could it be, I wonder, that there is another human in the Shire who matches me on the oddness scale? Maybe I’ll have company when they finally chase me to the burning mill with pitchforks, and it’ll give the horse something to talk about the next day.

You know, there was a time when HT54 used to stop and talk to me. Maybe these days, HT54s are less tolerant of odd humans than horses who like to talk. I expect HT54 will be at the head of the torch bearing party when the day finally arrives.