A day in the life

It was hot and sunny yesterday and there were a number of free music festivals going on all over London so I decided to avoid them all and go for a picnic at Hampstead heath. I met Mark at Camden station and walked the rest of the way, we spoke of all kinds of nonsense as usual filling in the time till we could lose ourseles in our own thoughts on the things we see around us. I wanted to walk on the sunny side of the road so the route we took zig-zagged across the main road. We saw the signets from a few weeks ago, there were five now not seven but they all looked big and strong now and virtually able to take care of them selves but that didn't stop Mummy and Daddy swan nipping at the closest pidgeons. We found a bench on a hill to eat breakfast of Fried potatoes pitta bread an dips (much nicer than it sounds), then continued round the Park.
We walked on to the stone bridge where people put out nuts and the like and we put a few blueberries in a neat little line along the wall and waited. Along comes Mr Squirrel and eats half of the first blueberry, then walks over the line sniffing each of them to see if they are somehow different! Then a pair of Jays that are nervous of our presence and swoop grabbing what they can and dissapearing back into the trees. There were great tits in the bushes that wouldn't come out till we were further away but they did treat us by eating a cashew nut whole-I swear it was like watching a snake eat, that bird must have dislocated it's beak to get the whole thing down in one! Some other people came to watch and we chatted to them for a bit, strangely I recognised one of them from school, I asked if it was him and it was-how bizarre? We went through the 'so what are you doing now' conversation and went on our way again.
We always get lost in the Heath and this was no different. Walking along a path we saw a dead tree with a bird in it. 'What's that?' Marks asks me, 'it's a bit to far to see' I say 'it's a Kestrel' said a lady walking in towards us and away from the bird. As we get closer she's clearly right and Mark comments on it's eyes being that of a preditor. We watch it watching the space around us for a few minutes. Then it moves it's head, glides from the tree soundlessly to the grassy area near us and about 6 feet off the ground pulls in it's wings and dives into the longish grass. 'What's it got?' askes Mark moving towards it 'don't scare it away' I say quietly pulling him back. The kestrel is about 4 feet from us now and it looks up directly at us then calmly picks up the mouse in it's talons and flies into a group of trees close by.
A whispered 'WOW' comes from both of us and we walk on knowing that that was a priviledge to see. Knowing that couldn't be beaten for a sight we wandered home for huggles and snoogles which were plentiful and ummig.