Afternoon in the Park

This afternoon I took my book, camera, a bottle of water, put on my sun hat and went off to Regent's Park. It's just around the corner but usually the weather isn't hot enough to sit on a bench and read...or think.

I wished I had a dog to walk today but out of the thousands of people who were there, I only remember seeing 3 dogs. Paris would be quite another story!

It's funny that I chose to read Virginia Woolf because we were both very stream-of-consciousness today. It was the details about people and life that stood out for me. I would watch, write, and read at regular intervals and each action mirrored the last.
I sat on a bench under some trees and looked out at a large pond full of all sorts of water birds. As I read, I would see things out of the corner of my eye as people walked past...and I'd hear things...I really only ended up reading 3 pages in an hour...My senses were too occupied with the world around me...

• Japanese tourists with brown hats, bags, shoes, jackets

• The thread hanging from the bottom of an African lady's shawl

• A man with keys jingling in his pocket as he walked
  

• Snippets of conversation: "The lady always says yes." "The fish is salted and dried for months." "We ended up with a headache." "I will end up in the sea. I'm going to the sea."

• The soft feather rolling across the surface of the water like tumbleweed in a desert

• Children's voices wafting from the other side of the pond
  

• The hint of roses on the breeze from the garden nearby

• Pigeons cooing in the trees behind me

• The duck opposite that would not stop preening

• The photography class that wandered by, studied same duck, by which time he'd tired of preening and was starting to doze off

• The daddy who crept up on his little daughter as she leaned over the water watching the fish, went BOO! and tickled her into the grass
  

• The entwined lovers I stumbled upon around corners

All in all, an interesting day. I went to the store on my way home and bought Viennetta ice cream to replace my after-dinner pot of tea.