Daily Nature Log ✍️
   Setting off from the town centre in a warm 21°C (though a crisp 17°C in real feel), bright sunshine had drawn out legions of local dog walkers and their four-legged companions.
   Given the built-up, semi-rural nature of this particular trek, wildlife encounters are usually thin on the ground, save for a solitary wood pigeon soaring over the High Street.

  . Today’s true highlight, however, unfolded right in the central car park.
    Two ladies were wrestling a pair of monumental Mastiffs into the back of an estate car when one of the gentle giants trotted over, tail wagging, demanding a thorough greeting. Naturally, I obliged, only to be promptly joined by his partner in crime. A lovely chat with the owners ensued, though my trousers paid the ultimate price in a generous coating of slobbering Mastiff drool.
    Moving on, my spirits sank slightly passing a garden that usually puts on a magnificent spring display of wild primroses—the entire lawn had been mercilessly ripped out.
    The homeward leg took me along a busy road bustling with children freed from the school gates, flanked by a chaotic procession of parental vehicles belching out obnoxious exhaust fumes. Amidst the fumes, a young sweet chestnut had strewn its prickly burrs across the pavement, and a man striding past with a yellow Labrador marked the final encounter of an unusually lively active walk.
Today I walked for 1.7 miles in 37 minutes.
Google Fit awarded me 19 heart points.

Copyright ©️ Text, photographs and videos Written by John Yeo – All rights reserved.