Sorry if the picture is filled with glare, but that's the reflection off the grass (ha,ha,ha) or should I say, soggy mud and the occasional tuft? All I can say is the small, black headed gulls seemed to be enjoying it and the tiny flock were happily hunting drowned worms and the like whilst attempting to float in one place as strong winds blew them toward the bank.
I decided there was little or no point in going for a walk again today, and went in a large circle around the town instead.
I use the term, 'town' with great looseness as I would never regard Tonbridge as one, being such a small place, pinched at the waist by its single one-ton bridge (hence the name), but there was enough space for many to be out early this windy and somewhat chilly Sunday morning, shopping as if the world was about to come to a shuddering halt and there would be no food in the shops for at least the next month, or three.
Sainsburys and Iceland were being attacked by marauding masses, each with their over filled trolleys and foul temper. I don't think fighting had broken out but there were a lot of very angry people complaining someone had taken the last pack of toilet rolls.
Why toilet rolls for heavens sake?
I ignored the whole dance of the tribes and headed into Waitrose for a more subdued shopping extravaganza for two loaves of vegan bread and a packet of coconut biscuits....last of the big spenders me. This entitled me to a free coffee which I gratefully enjoyed whilst watching the arguing couples leave Iceland.
What a performance.
Another wander and I headed back to the swimming pool just to have a look and a sit in a less frenetic part of town.
On my way round I came across a mum and a little boy..
Mum gently steered her son along the submerged path and in their wellies they enjoyed a paddle in the puddle.
I thought of my mother and what we would have done. Yes, we too would be paddling with the gulls, sticking to the path so as to have a relatively sound footing. Would my mother have hung on to me? Somehow, I get the impression she wouldn't, I would have been too busy getting soaked and falling over in the slippery mud which must have been coating the path by now.
Well done to that mum! Indulging her child like that will stick with him for a very long time and you never know, it might be a memory, like mine, which will be stimulated to surface in years to come when he too sees another mum doing something similar with her child.
