Walking off a small hangover

After last nights efforts with the red wine, white wine, fizzy and flat, beer and a rather nice whisky I still woke up at 6.30 so went out for a walk. I was in the middle of nowhere, strolling along a no through road that came off a small lane with grass growing in the middle. It was about 7.30 and I was trying to blip a broken down cow shed when this voice asked what I was doing. An elderly lady, dressed in a rather old housecoat was feeding her chickens and ducks in her garden, some 20 feet up a grassy bank.

We got talking, I climbed up to her level and she told me about the history of mining in the area and how it affected the landscape, the way farming had changed over the years, how the area was being depopulated as youngsters leave and oldsters die or move. She told me about the family relationships between her geese and showed me fossils in the dry stone wall in her garden. She also directed me to a Clapper Bridge made out of a single slab of Limestone. The bridge as over a stream at the bottom of a very steep field, a little magical little corner

This lady was delightful. Clearly I made little impression on her as talking to a total stranger is not at all unusual to her. She made a great impression on me; I hope one day I will be able to do what she did.