Well, I was a few minutes ago. Not now. Now I'm sitting in the kitchen watching the rain splash on the window and contemplating lunch. Late lunch, it's gone 14.30 and I haven't eaten yet. But anyways, I was sitting down by the pond just a few minutes ago. Warm under the gorgeous summer sun and enjoying the gentle breeze. I was waiting for the bonfire I'd lit to finish burning (I smell of woodsmoke; Dan would love it) so I could come inside and have something to eat.
I absolutely love sitting by the pond, it's one of my very favourite places in the world. It's where I go when I'm feeling a bit sad or lonely, and it's also where I like to go to sit and relax when I'm happy and the weather is good. I've even been known to sit down there through the odd thunderstorm. Today I just went to sit and relax.
The thing I love the most about our pond is that you're always surrounded by nature down there. Since we've had the pond re-built and gotten rid of all the fish, the water is teeming with life; mainly insect life for now but the amphibians are starting to come back. Today I was especially lucky, there were two beautiful big dragonflies flitting and darting around the edge of the water. One, a big blue and green dragon, not unlike the photo above (which was taken down by the pond a year or two ago,) kept landing and laying eggs, the other, a much more active red/brown dragon, wouldn't land or stay still long enough for me to get a good look at it.
The sweetest thing happened next; a pair of mating damselflies came and landed on my arm, just above my <3 tattoo. I wished desperately that I had had my camera with me. It would have made the most beautiful picture. They stayed there for about a minute as I watched them, totally unphased by the fact that they'd landed on a large moving object that smelled like fire. I don't know why they landed on my arm, I've never had a damselfly let me get that close before, but I wonder if it has anything to do with my nails being painted electric/sea blue/turquoise right now. No matter really, it made my day.
After that the sun went in behind some very dark, thundery looking clouds so I made my way back towards the house. I stopped off on my way to lift up the sheet of corrugated steel in the corner to see if anything interesting had moved in underneath. There was a small shrew that squeaked at me rather harshly for uncovering it and a tiny, very dark coloured toad that just hunched down and hoped that I hadn't seen it. One day, the idea is that we'll find a grass snake underneath one of the corrugated sheets. That would be a dream come true.
And now it's lunchtime. I'm so hungry! Hehe. I just wanted to write about the fantastic little creatures that I'd encountered, down by the pond. One of my favourite places in the world. One of my happy places. :)
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