I HAD IN MIND

to cycle to the Zuiderpark, but fate had other plans with me.
When I came at the big ponds I saw at the pond at my left a strange bird swimming, kind of washing herself. At the pond at my right I saw Hetty at the shore. With a swan family nearby.
She came towards me, rather running. The bird that I had seen was a pigeon and she was drowning. We stood there and saw no branch would reach her. Then Hetty said I'll go in the water and fetch her. How deep it is she asked at the onlookers, one meter the answer was. It was deeper and it was more cold than she had expected. But she got the pigeon.
A woman with a bike volunteered to bring the bird to De Wulp, the rescue center.
Hetty did not go home. She said I'll sit in the sun and she told me that she had brought the father swan back to his family. And there they were, all of them.
I sat near her.
The agressive male swan appeared not too far away.
When he came around the corner, we both chased him away, with sticks.
The picture shows one of the young.
We sat there for a while. Then I said I would go and look if I could find the place where the threatening male had gone.
I made a round, did not see him, and when I returned to my big surprise, the whole family of swans and Hetty had disappeared and the agressive male stood on the place where they had been.
So I cycled to where I thought they could have gone and I found them.
They came ashore and they were fed by Hetty.
Then suddenly the big male appeared even there. And a little crisis we felt.
The swan family went into the water and swam away in a row. I can show the picture here.
The big male went away in the other direction.
It was time to go and eat something for me. I felt and Hetty too that it would be only a question of time, but it was inevitable that the drama would happen sometime.

My haiku:

And we try and try
To escape the inevitable
Without much success

And the proverb:

Het is Holland op zijn smalst.

Translation: It is Holland at the narrowst.
Meaning: One says this of things, places and even persons, that are less broad than their kind is.