but what to do afterwards

clearing up the magubbinry in the morning i was certain that an early leaving time wasn't on the cards and i wasn't wrong. i phoned t to get her up. what's your plan i asked. waking, she replied. how's about making a breakfast picnic i suggested along with looking out the window at the sunrise for any additional inspiration.

45 minutes later she was picking me up armed with coffee, rye bread surprises, even orange juice. top performance!

where we live there's a surprisingly large island in the centre of town. usually we walk across it on the railway bridge but i fancied a scout down the edge of it to see the goldeneyes around the harbour. and what an excursion. few enough people come down here at the best of time far less at eight in the morning so we had the place to ourselves. most of our initial attention was on the goosanders which, us being on the riverbank we had a grand view of. we followed them down to where the goldeneye were, startling a deer along the way, saw some cormorants, the usual complement of gulls. some mallards, flock of domestic geese and even a seal! on the way back we paused for a while (a long while, narrowly dodging a parking ticket) on the railway bridge watching the birds up the top of the pine trees - tits, chaffinches, gold finches, goldcrests.

and the picnic. we sat down the top of the island to the sound of the waterfall and the ind in the trees. no thought of work. it was great. i would thoroughly recommend the habit of out of hours picnickery, including of course for those not blighted with light pollution, the night picnic. a great way of letting the stress evaporate!