Swans

I went running again this lunchtime.  That's the third run this week - get me!  I'd say it was my best run for ages.  I kept up a decent pace and didn't get distracted by taking photos or picking blackberries.  Slowly I can feel my fitness returning and the pleasure of running (yes, really) made a brief but definite appearance.

There is one downside to this running lark though.  You know how soft-hearted I am about animals and wildlife??  Well there has been a family of swans hanging round "my" stretch of canal this last couple of weeks.  Mum, Dad and 2 kids, erm, signets.  I'm starting to look out for them and feel proprietory towards them.  In a grim place like an industrial canal running through Rotherham this could be a heart-breaking development.

I've started noticing (even more than usual) the horrific levels of rubbish in and around the canal and the towpath.  It's hard not to see it when you're watching a family of swans chugging through the weeds and algae alongside a sinking armchair and numerous floating bottles and cans.  Then I started to think about those awful, heartrending photos lodged in my brain of birds trapped in plastic can holders (you know, the tough plastic rings in sets of 4 holding your cans of Skol together). 

I know I can't pick up all the rubbish I pass as I run - my runs would not last very long although I suppose dragging the hundred weight of cans and other trash would be exercise of sorts.  But what I can do is pick up every plastic can holder I see.  In the hope that "my" swans don't end up trapped in one on my patch.  So that's what I do now.  I feel a bit daft by the end, clutching a handful of plastic but it's worth it - 4 on Tuesday (I only started looking halfway back) and 7 today.

The other downside of this enhanced awareness of litter is the suspicious looks I'm giving to (possibly) innocent passers by.  Where I would normally puff out a friendly "hello", I now find myself glaring at anyone carrying a can or other item of food.  I'm assuming that they're going to drop it when they finish it.  To be fair, the evidecen would be on my side in this assumption but it is not fair on the occasional good sort.  I found myself glaring at one chap with a can and a bag and then, once I was well past him realised that he was actually picking up litter today.  Whooops!  I hope he noticed the can holders and realised that I'm a kindred spirit.

I'm feeling the need to do more but am not sure what.  Not sure I have the personality to organise and litter pick or something major, head-above-the-parapet like that.  I'll probably fall back on that bastion of the English middle classes and "write a letter"!

In other news, we're not going to Cappadocia.  I'm gutted to be honest but Richard didn't have enough leave.  If we'd gone he would have had no leave left for when (note - WHEN) we move.  Cancelling my provisional reservation was tough as it is a place I'd really like to see and the trip really was a bargain.  We'll get there one day I hope.

The house move is frustrating too.  Everything is sorted apart from one issue.  The house our seller is going to move into needs electricity and there is a problem with the connection which requires the attention of British Gas.  This is not good - being at the mercy on British Gas is not a comfortable place to be in. It had better happen before Christmas tht is all I can say!!!