BIRDS AND BEES

I went for a walk around the lake at lunchtime. It's really nice how the sunlight filters through the trees, casting dappled patches of shadow on the path. The air was fresh and alive, filled with the sound of insects humming and the fountain pouring into the water. I accidentally interrupted a couple of dragonflies who were locked in a clinch. They buzzed off in opposite directions. I was a bit embarrassed. Then I was a bit more embarrassed about being embarrassed over conjugating dragonflies.

I walked around a little further and came across a few geese, pecking about on the grass. Geese trouble me a bit if I'm honest. I know I've said before that I have a mild fear of cows (they look at you and chew silently as you pass them, plotting and menacing like the birds behind Tippi Hedren's head) and I don't want to keep adding to a list of weird phobias... but geese do trouble me.

I can't help thinking of Jurassic Park when I see a gaggle of geese. Look at their beady little eyes, their strutting necks, their spindly reptilian legs and sharpened beaks. They're dinosaurs, tiny raptors with feathers... and that frightens me a bit.

Thankfully my train of thought took me to the making of the movie and I suddenly remembered that some of the sound effects from Jurassic Park were actually recordings of copulating tortoises... by the time I'd remembered that and had told myself off for chuckling, I was safely clear of the herd.

A lot of people amble round the lake; it's a popular place for a lunchtime stroll. I wandered through snippets of conversations.

"So he turned around and, you're not gonna believe what he..."

"Ya, ya, it's twenny thou.. ya, I know, ya."

"Oh it was way nicer than last year! Yeah, Ibeefa. Nah he was mullered."

That last one was followed by what could only be described as a cackle.

I wandered round to the honeybee hives. Yep, we have two beehives on the park! The bees didn't seem to be up to much today but the hives are in a quiet, shady corner so I stayed there for a while thinking. I'm not afraid of bees - geese and cows it seems, and maybe cackling 'birds' on mobile phones, but not bees. I think they're great: organised, practical, creative, smart, dancing units of happy creatures who do what they love without a care that their output is so deliciously useful.

I walked back to my desk thinking about that. It's a heck of a job description.