First Week Back in Work - Achievement Unlocked

Well, there we go then. A week that started very nervously, but improved as I got used to things and rather perversely felt more interested in things than I had been for a couple of weeks.

It was lucky that I was alone in my office for a fair bit over the past two days.

I'm very paranoid of course. I carry around paper towels to touch all the metal door handles that you have to pull to move around the building, sanitise my keyboard and mouse two or three times a day, sanitise my hands when ever I touch anything that isn't on my desk.

That sort of thing is tough. OCD is such fun during a pandemic.

And being around people in a confined space is a very "new" experience as well. I was washing my hands in the bathroom when another guy walked in while I was walking out, I nearly lost it.

So getting out at break times are important to me, even on a blazing day like today. I like to do a circuit of campus, exploring the planted and wild areas. Yesterday, for instance, I traipsed across the wasteland towards the drainage ditch, where a big clump of hairy willow herb was buzzing with bees. There's some whopping big blackberries growing too, but right next to  a busy road.

Mmmmm, toxic berries.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCRackeredNature 31.07.20

Upon the Mantlepiece of Curiosities

In what I laughably term my office, or perhaps study would be a better word, there is a mantlepiece. It mainly acts as a storage area for odd bits of junk, but I like to refer to it as my "mantlepiece of curiosities".

And amongst the foreign coins, wooden rhinoceros, sofa of cats and a furry magnolia pod, sit these two folk.

They were both turned up at different times in my parent's roof.

The larger one is definitely a blackbird, they used to nest in an opening overlooking the garden many years ago, when I was studying for my GCSEs out in the sun. The smaller one I'm not sure about. It has a finch, or possibly spuggy beak, a relatively larger eye socket, and a less pronounced breastbone-keel.

They are so lightweight, and ephemeral, it is unreal. They can be virtually blown along my mantlepiece museum, and feel more like they are made of dried grass rather than bone. How on earth they can support musculature powerful enough to enable them to fly is a mystery, if my muscles were strong enough for me to fly my shoulders would shatter and I'm rather sturdier than a tiny ball of feathers.

I used to be frightened of all skeletons as a child, I still remember a nightmare I had when I was 5 or 6 featuring test tube eggs and girls opening up their shins to show me their bones. Even now, I'm not a huge fan of skulls...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 21.11.15