Has he gone?

The common lizards at Foulshaw Moss like to bask on the wooden boardwalk. As you walk along, you will see them scuttling into the vegetation on either side. If you stop and watch quietly, they peep over the edge of the wooden timbers, and if they think the coast is clear, they will emerge fully into the open. This one eventually was stretched out full length (only about 10-12 cm) in front of me, so close I couldn't focus the macro lens on its eye.

I had my trip out after lunch. The morning was spent in more mundane, but more necessary activity - clearing the clutter in the room I use as a study at home. This is a job I have been putting off for a long time, so long I was beginning to feel like Rottcodd in Gormenghast's Hall of the Bright Carvings where everything was coated in a thick layer of dust as he dozed in his hammock.

Speaking of Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake's trilogy is receiving a lot of attention at the moment with the centenary of his birth. There will be transmission of a dramatisation of the novels from this Sunday on Radio 4. Some years ago, there was a TV dramatisation, but it didn't work for me - I suspect radio may be a better medium where if well done, the producers can tap in to the power of the listener's imagination.