Seven

Spent the late morning reorganising my MS. Then a walk with Lola in the park. Too many kids and dogs. She was mostly content to chase balls, but practically attacked a little dog, and when the owner (a little girl) tried to protect it she almost leapt on them. I got there in time to stop what might have been a disaster. The kids were very understanding. Lola has never attacked or bitten anyone but she gets hyper-excited chasing balls and is desperately impatient with dogs who won't play (rough).

Drove out to the docks, but not much there. Then back to Pigeon House Road and out to the South Bull. Returning, instead of taking a right towards the roundabout, I turned left and drove out by the cement works. I walked out onto that stretch of boggy green wasteland behind the Water Treatment works and began to shoot crows.

Eventually I met a couple sitting against a hoarding. They had a couple of dogs, a collie and lurcher-type on a leash. We got talking almost immediately. Nell and Brian were from Sandymount. Brian in particular was someone who (to paraphrase Pearse Hutchinson) believed in talking to strangers, as I do usually. He used come out here as a boy to mich school, which of course reminded me of the sinister little story Joyce set in this general area, An Encounter.

The conversation moved, as such unfenced conversations tend to, towards other matters: ancient civilizations, gods, the cosmos, war, the origins of our species. I found myself blabbering away like an eager child, regurgitating all the half-digested fascinations my friends have to tolerate. Ah, and sure why not? If your tongue is happy wagging...

I took a few photographs of them, but was distracted by the crows landing and taking off a nearby fence, impatient for us to leave so they could concentrate on the trayful of crumbs Nell had set out for them.

Before we knew it, the green/blue evening was slitting and shafting to sepia-gold. As we walked off we noticed more crows returning, a dark little knot of excitement now the bothersome humans had got out of the way.