A 'yow' called Nikon

After my last miserable effort, I'm delighted to report that I had a smashing run yesterday lunchtime. It was a warm, soggy sort of day (62% humidity according to the nifty little weather station gadget we've got on the windowsill) when I set off for a run that linked together bits of the routes I refer to as the 'River Loop' and the 'Buzzard Loop'.

It was on the first part of this that I heard, very distinctly, Click!, the sound of a camera shutter. 'Weird', I thought. There was nobody about. But then I heard it again, the distinctive click! of a camera shutter. I trotted on, looking around. And there it was. A bedraggled ewe (they call them 'yows' in these parts), head nodding with the effort, coughed/sneezed - and sounded uncannily like a camera. Phew. Mystery solved.

I then wondered whether sheep can get hay fever. After all, they are mammals, with mammalian immune systems and so presumably have all the necessary biological mechanisms to respond to allergens like grass pollen. Can you imagine being such a sheep? Sneezing and coughing, eyes streaming, wishing summer would hurry up and be over, being delighted every time it rained, going through a gate into a new field... oh bugger, more sodding grass... Atishoo! click....

Such musings kept me occupied for quite a while. The run was glorious. Even in the fields which have yet to be cut, with the knee-high soggy grass soaking my feet and legs (and leaving red wheals where my skin responded to the grass pollen) which meant I had to run with high knee-lift. Tiring, but good extra training. Rabbits were scurrying about. All in all, it was an enjoyable 35 minutes with 192 ft of ascent/descent.

Smileyrating 9/10