Kingfisher Day

 MY WALK IN THE PARK

10am this  morning - walking to the University parks -  the view from the top of our road  - the area of Exeter where we live is called Pensylvannia.

En route I always pass these two horses who live 

in this field 

with a view of the city way below them.

It must have grown too far over the road, this ivy.

Fig in the park....

Young Eucalyptus

shining in the sun.

Old Eucalyptus

shedding 

its skin.

Silver palm over water.

My friend on the phone says,

What are you going to do for yourself today? Just one thing?

 I'd forgotten that was even an option, mired as I am in the next caring thing. But I know straight away what it is.

I want to go for a walk.

 I haven't walked - not properly - for weeks. My body, my cells, my soul in its cage are all crying for it. The call of the big outside - actually small and urban but outside all the same -  away from the relentless indoors -  is suddenly urgent and possible. Robin is out in the tender care of his lovely Age UK enabler. Enabling me to abandon hand washing and Christmas clearing up, grab my camera, my phone and my woolly gloves and head for the park.

Where something magical happens. A young woman is standing in the exact spot by the lake where I usually stand to take photos of the ducks.  She calls out to me,

Can you see the kingfisher?

I can't at first. She gives me a detailed description of where he's sitting  on a branch way on the other side of the water. Then suddenly I see the tiny flash of rust and turquoise. I try and capture him in my lens but my hand shakes so much with excitement that I can't focus and then he's gone. But the sheer joy of seeing him is indelible.

 The young woman tells me there are a pair of them.....they live and fish on this lake.....so I can come back any time when the sun is shinning. It's one of my greatest wishes to photograph a kingfisher.....always associated now with my father......and I may get lucky.

He did bring me luck today if that's what it is -  because moments later my phone rings. It's the consultant neurologist's secretary offering Robin an appointment tomorrow. He did have an appointment but not till mid-February.  I cried on the phone to her yesterday... said I didn't want to wait  6 weeks or be at the end of the cancellation list.....but she didn't sound hopeful.

 So thank you, Kingfisher. Thank you, Pa.

Next time he'll be in focus.....