We have no time to stand and stare...

Developing on yesterday's theme, where does time go? I've been up and about since 06:00 this morning (thank you for barking, dogs!), so you'd have thought that I would have got a lot done. I was full of good intentions, aiming to go for a walk and then to the garden centre for a few new plants by 09:00. However, I was distracted... First of all, I had to feed the dogs, weed the garden, feed the birds, tidy the kitchen, set the dishwasher off (and now I need to unload it). Then I had breakfast and read the newspaper. On my way to get dressed, I foolishly stopped off in my study to check whether I had any urgent emails from students. More than 2 hours later, I'm still here, having sent messages, sent additional messages clarifying my previous messages, collected assignments and so on.

What I did realise this morning, however, was that I don't spend sufficient time just watching what's going on around me. While I was having my early morning cup of tea, I spent half an hour or so observing what was going on around my bird table. Despite having obtained a "bird chart", I hadn't realised quite how many different types of bird come to my table. I was amazed! I was also amazed at how tame they are; while I was weeding the garden, robins and chaffinches were pottering around on the bird table and in the borders, quite unworried by my presence. Indeed, for the last few days, when I've looked into the garden early in the morning, it's been like a scene from Daphne du Maurier's short story The Birds, with feathered creatures perched along the length of the garden wall, on top of the garden shed, in the bushes, on the roof, on the chimney and even in the trees in the field over the wall!

Despite this rather threatening presence (what would they do if their food didn't appear on the table?!), I do like having time to watch my local wildlife - I can even distinguish several different types of birdsong now, something I definitely couldn't have done before my enforced slowing down.

So, another reinforcement of the thought that there really is life beyond work!