it's a good job that time is so soft and invisible, otherwise i would have noticed it so boldy striding past me. why is it that it seems impossible to ever get anything done? and why is it that waiting takes up so much time? and why is it that i always have such grand intentions and they always melt away in the cool english summer sun? until i get to the end of the holidays and all i seem to have is a puddle, and wet feet.

but then again, every now and again, the world crystalizes into a jewel. i was walking along the canal, thinking about the nature of beauty, and doubting the existence of uglyness, and trying to prove that beauty is at once good and indestructable and the bringer of hope and proof of a god. and then a flash of metallic gleaming turquoise interrupted my thoughts as a kingfisher sped down the water in front of me, it had a kind of weight and speed about it like a train, and the colours, blue and orange were so bright and so shining in the afternoon sun i could all but stand staring after it. luckily, i saw it 3 other times after this first one, each one amazed me as much as the last. such beauty.
sitting on a bench a little further down, i was descended upon by a whole host of housemartins. they seemed to come out of nowhere, and suddenly they were all around. just a few metres in front of me they were skimming the water of the canal, some just touching the water, leaving fine ripples behind them, in order to drink, others seemed to (without breaking the speed and agility of their flight) drop almost straight into the water, and out again, i presume they were bathing. they were soaring all around, in between diving down to the water, riding the air currents and gliding just centimetres away from me, over my head. there were so many and they were so fast that my eyes felt slow and stiff trying to turn quick enough to watch them. in the end i gave up, and just sat there, being aware of being within something of a tornado of small birds, listening to the sound of their wings as they passed. i felt as though they were my thoughts, spiralling around my head in the air.