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I’ve finally got my life back, after handing in a couple of essays this past week so I decided to celebrate by going for a walk with my cousin yesterday afternoon. She’s a fully qualified nature geek and has already got experience in environmental education so she fully understands my new obsession.

When we were younger I’d love visiting her family on the south coast of Cornwall, and I’d spend hours staring out to sea convinced I’d someday see a dolphin.

To make up for the lack of sea here we followed the river out of town for a couple of miles, ending up at a countryside park. We saw coots and ducks and Canada geese and swans and then just as the light was fading I spotted a heron! Only the second I’ve ever seen so was chuffed to bits.

After the sun had set a full moon rose and lit the river up in such a beautiful way, it was really special, and reminded me that this city isn’t quite as lifeless as I sometimes think. We found some ponies and fed them polos, it never fails to crack me up at the way they stick their tongues out in surprise afterwards! It did make me sad to see how they were tethered on quite short chains though, and one of them was really very porky.

Just as we were leaving the park we came across a couple who were chucking tons of white bread out to the swans and geese. I got the impression they were getting rid of out-of-date bread from a shop, and that they come fairly regularly. It was great to see so many birds this way, and one cocky swan even grabbed a piece out of my hand, but I can’t help wondering whether all that white bread is good for them? Especially as they are already in a countryside park. What does everyone think?

We left the park and caught a bus back to the city, but just as we were walking through the car park we heard some loud noises coming from some undergrowth. From the clumsy snapping of branches and a white nose I glimpsed, I first hoped it was badgers, but as we got closer we realised they were small ponies with had been tethered amongst some bushes.

I wish I’d had a camera on me to capture the light of the moon, and the way clouds were strewn across it, but I doubt my panasonic lumix would have been up to the job!

Tomorrow I’m going to do the rspb bird watching hour, I hardly seem to see any in our back yard but I’m hoping to be surprised. I missed the bird watching event I was hoping to go to this morning as I didn’t end up rolling home until gone 5am last night….well I can’t be geeky all of the time can I?

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