An uplifting circuit

I had another smashing outing today.  

I was caught up watching birds in the trees in this field when this lovely fellow appeared for the second day on the trot and came up to say hello.  Slightly different place but the same objective in mind - to find a needle in a haystack... underground!  I confessed that I sneaked a picture of him yesterday with his listening stick but couldn't use it because my memory of the day had to be the brocken spectre recce with Jason.  He didn't seem to mind me rambling for a while and was happy to tell me about how this device actually works.  They've found one of the leaks but there's still more to find and the plan of the area through the farm is exceptionally vague.  

Funny, because the other day, I noticed a small bubbling water spout coming out of a puddle that's normally a tiny muddy stream across the path - I'd noted how it was not normally clean water and how good it was to get the mud off my boots from this field which is notoriously claggy on the soles.  I must tell him if I see him tomorrow (although I'll miss the boot wash!)

We also talked about how they can identify something is leaking. I had it in the back of my head how that might be because my very first job in marketing was for an energy software company that hooked up to utility meters and alerted you to unusual usage.  There were some amazing case studies that we got to write about with huge savings and I'm fairly certain one of them was Yorkshire Water.  That was about 25 years ago and it was quite impressive technology at the time and quite a revelation for the utilities - I suspect it's fairly bog standard and expected now.  

Anyway, today, for a change, I had courage enough to ask for a photo and I even requested this demo!

After almost walking back to tell him about the clean water bubble, I changed my mind and continued on my way which was the other special part of the walk.  I met Christine again, after a few years of not seeing her, rolling her bin back down the drive.    Now, this is one of the lovely bits in terms of how I know her.  I know Christine through her brother. They used to have a dog and walk quite a lot. I recognised David from one of blipper Identity's photos and felt I had something I could chat to him about.  Since then we've chatted a lot and started to pick David up on the way back from the shops if we spotted him as it took him an eternity to walk there and back - he was always up for a chat and a lift but never expected it. They have now both become pretty much housebound.

The lovely thing about living in a village is, somebody knows. I often wonder how they are and have checked up in the post office before because I know David used to go in there.  Christine was in good spirits and David better than he had been so that was good news.  It made me chuckle that she's been sawing wood from a branch that had fallen off in the wind - she likes sawing!

So, after I gave Christine a few treats to give Little Dog, we eventually set off for home feeling like there had been a couple of very uplifting connections today and quite a few memories bouncing around in my brain.

And, unbelievably good timing for Jason, the weather is turning in the right direction for mist over the next few days.  It's so unpredictable though, it's said mist twice today on the forecast and then changed its mind.  Whatever brocken spectre dance you're doing, keep it up!