It's only a tiny adventure today: I don't even have my camera to glam things up with a photo and I'm visiting a place well-known to me in the summer when we go swimming here.
Still, it felt like a small adventure going out of season and seeing the river in a different mood. I took a little picnic with us. Dave the Rucksack looked like he'd swallowed a wasp, so skin tight and puffed out with rug, food, thermos and swim gear. Sure, it's autumn but the river has the scent and temperature of the sea which is not far away, and it still warm enough to swim in. For other , braver people that is.
When we arrived, there was hardly anyone about except a trio of mums carting little girls in pink frou-frou around on a golden day-bed. They were obviously doing a photo shoot, but it was very surreal. Seems ironic to dress kids up to the hilt in pink sequinned glamour and then take photo's of them in a natural setting...Yeah, okay I just sound old instead of philosophical.
I picked a grassy spot beneath a tree, overlooking the crooked green elbow of the river and sat watching the hypnotic pin-prick sparkle of sun on water. Occasionally there would be a plop, and like a shooting star, a fish would leap from the water so fast you only caught the ripples of their disappearance.
Like the bank I sat on, the far side is all sandstone; some of it flat with oyster-encrusted shelves hanging over the water, the rest massive boulders which perhaps once tumbled down the treed hill behind.
I sipped my coffee, very aware how lucky I was to be able to sit peacefully in such a beautiful spot.Just magic.
Eventually I noticed the blue sky was having a white cloud tucked under its chin and it would soon rain, so we packed up for home like everyone else. Soon the river would enjoy some peace for itself.
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