Escape to the river

This morning, a workman appeared on next-doors doorstep armed with power tools - my heart sank.  More  confirmation, though none was needed, that terraced housing is inhumane.  I put on my headphones and listened to music at ear-splitting volume.  Queens of the Stone Age failed, even Slayer failed to drown out the noise. I'm sure the bloke next-door was digging up tarmac with a pneumatic drill rather than fitting a shower.  I didn't get much work done and in the end, I abandoned my desk and left the house stringing a tail of Choice Words over my shoulder.

Abandoned Desk

The heat is seething today, the breeze feels like someone's opened the oven door and the air quivers with heat waves. The only place to be is in the woods by the river. I headed in that direction.  As I passed the sign that cheerily declares there are dippers in the vicinity, I made my customary 'phff' sound and eyed it with scorn.  This hopeful information I hold with the same disdain as the myths that there are otters on Yell, badgers behind Tim's house and that Loch Ness has a monster - I ain't seen 'em.

By the bubbling river I find a suitable moss-covered rock to perch on and begin designing.

The swirling waters soon kill off the echoes of pneumatic drills in my mind, the breeze carries the sound of swifts aloft and the scent of cows parsley.  Jays flicker in the trees above and fish flash out of the water to pluck biting bugs from the air.  

My River

'This beats the craft room and the {Choice Words} pneumatic drill,' I think to myself as something whizzs by.  'Dipper?' my brain suggests, and sure enough, bobbing on a rock upstream was a dipper!  Maybe the people who write signs aren't talking out of their other hole after all.  I crept closer, as quiet as snow, clutching my Even Worse Camera and got a rubbish shot at full zoom...

Proof!

So, the upshot is that I didn't get much done today but saw a dipper.  I reckon that's a good day after all.  Next time I saunter down to the waters edge I'm taking my Rubbish Camera.

Book Deadline #1:  27 sleeps 

Percentage of work finished:  1% (time to panic nearing)