It’s been getting warm. Like, warm enough to go outside, which I’ve started doing voluntarily. I don’t think I’ve gone outside willingly since last March, the last time it was actually warm. We had a fire drill today, and I think it was the first time ever that no one was wearing gloves. Well, I say fire drill. I hope it was a drill. It would be awkward to find out it’s actually been warm just because my school was burning down.
I bought a pair of walking boots last week, in an attempt to make myself leave the cave of Undermyduvet, and so far it’s been working alarmingly well. I have been for a walk every night this week, mostly down by my local river, which has been hilarious. With the rise of the warm weather, the wildlife has finally come out of hibernation, and it’s been a joy to watch. There’s the usual crowd of ducks, moorhens, coots, and the surprisingly violent trout (Don’t throw bread in the river while all of them are around. The fish bite the ducks feet to get more.)
There’s a pair of swans that come back every year to have babies, and the lady swan is currently sat happily on her nest on the island, while her husband chases down walkers to try and get food. Swans are essentially very pretty muggers. I’ve seen him follow a small family for almost half a mile down the river, just because he knew they had a loaf of Hovis with them.
The frogs arrived yesterday, and I think it’s a pretty high chance they have come as a plague from God to tell us that Gangnam Style really needs to stop now. There are quite a lot of them. It’s become a habit to walk down by the river and scoop any frogs out of the path and back into the water, in case they get trodden on. They are adorable, and make the sound of kittens crying. Although it does get very tiring trying to explain to them that interspecies threesomes with toads probably won’t work. Especially because they usually just run away.
I think the finest specimen to reappear so far has been the rock climbers. You can usually find them hanging around in groups of around four or five underneath cliff faces, try and failing to look busy. If you’re lucky you may witness one actually adventure up the rock face to build a web made from a thick, rope like fibre. They can be easily identified by their bright coats, long fur, and public school accents.
