We went to watch polo today in Hamilton, about 15 minutes' drive from our house. By the end of the 2 hours, Tim and I had decided that it was a bit boring and weird, and I felt rather sorry for the horses who get hit a lot with the ball, sometimes deliberately. One penalty was being shot at the goal-post where we were standing, and the defending team leader yelled to his team-mates, "Deflect the ball with your horse!" Poor bloody horse! A man who was hit by a ball was taken off and seen by the EMT, hailed as a hero for coming back on to the field, while the poor horses are hit constantly with no accolades whatsoever. Do they really like it? I have no idea. Judging from this horse's expression I don't think he/she likes it very much. I think horses are really stupid to allow us on their backs at all.
When I woke up it was hot already, and my ankles and head ached. But I put on my blue-sky running shoes and off I went with the black dog. I ran 3.4 km, 2 km rather slowly, the last like a horse bolting for home! When I give myself permission that this will be the last circuit, my body just takes off, happily outdoing itself!
Tim went off early with one of his club members to a nature reserve in New Hampshire, where he saw Ospreys and Grey Herons feeling their huge babies on these funny untidy nests. A few couples build their nests on dead trees so that one tree will be a kind of heron colony, with a stick nest on the very top, then several untidy nests on lower rungs. Right now the young ones are almost ready to fledge, so the nests look too small to fit the big babies, let alone an enormous adult with huge feet! Such beautiful birds.
When he arrived home I asked him if he had seen anything good, and he said, "You'll be so jealous when I tell you everything I saw," but I replied that I would just be so happy that all these creatures are alive and doing well in this little reserve, it warms the cockles of my heart.
When we first moved to America we rented a house overlooking the ocean, such a very beautiful view. To see the sea in all its moods, the big storms coming over the vastness of it, the changing light. The ebb and flow of the tides were part of my daily experience, I knew without looking after a while, exactly what the tide was doing at that particular time.
When we had to move away I believed that I would not cope without the ocean, but for the past five years I have lived here with the woods and meadow as my backyard and they too have become a never-ending source of delight and discovery. I look forward to entering the magical realm of the meadow every day, you come through the leafy forest road, up a little hill, and then out into the brightness of the open meadow, where there is an abundance of life, birds, butterflies and bugs in summer, radiances of colour in the autumn, white wonders of deep snow and enigmatic animal tracks in the winter, and new green life each spring.
I really believe it is the answer to life. To find this delight in the little things, the everyday things. To savour the earth, to eat of its berries, to revel in its warmth, to acknowledge and appreciate. Looking, always observant and curious. Discovery. I wish everyone could have a little meadow of their own.
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