Sweet and Sour Summer

Today I took the short trip to a nearby village where I was to view a property. The young couple and their two children were delightful. I then walked along the canal tow path with my dog squeezing past the shire horse and the boatman as they towed the long boat and it's waving passengers, accompanied by the little terrier wearing a little red kerchief.

The sun was blazing down and the ducks were playing. The Mallard drakes were chasing the hens to much rowdy objection and rejection whilst the odd swan glided by with out a trickle in the cool, fresh water shaded by the weeping willows on the opposite bank.

Passers-by greeted me and many stopped for a chat. Dog walkers, parents with babies in pushchairs, families on bikes and little boy racers with stabilizers.

Even the youngsters who were wired for sound nodded and smiled.

I stopped at the cottage cafe. The one with the many teapots adorning the cob walls on outdoor shelving, sheltered by an over hanging thatched roof.

My dog and I sat beside the little pond framed in wild flowers and arching shrubs, listening to the waterfall.

On the next table were three young ladies who it would appear were teachers. They had ordered the rather exotic and extravagant afternoon tea which stood in tiers centre stage. The whole time I was there they were bitching about their underlings, breaking into raptures of laughter and then they would each sing their own praises about how terribly perfect they each were and would have done it this way or that.

I think the sooner we all realise that everyone is different and we all possess different skills and provide varying pleasures the better.

I noticed how they revelled in tripping their colleagues up instead of teaching and nurturing them into how a thing should be done and they were typically talking about the children like they knew what was best for them and as if they were possessions with which to prove their own self worth.

The drive home was also a little flawed as not one but two scenic routes had been closed so I could only use the motorway. I'm sure there was a good reason.