Monday, September 04, 2006

All roads lead to the library...

I went out for a walk today and ended up in the library. Thankfully I know myself quite well and had slipped my library card into my pocket before setting out and so I wandered home with four books. I'm so pleased my library card still works even if I haven't lived here for five years and I've even had to relinquish my benefits and tell social security I no longer live in Finland. I'm extremely grateful the library is not in the habit of bounding after wayward Finns demanding they return little bits of plastic...

Two of the books I borrowed were bird books. As I have keen bird-watchers as friends I was given strict instructions to report back on the birds I've seen. However, as my skills are roughly on the level of distinguishing between a big bird and a little bird I needed to do something drastic to see if I can identify anything! So far I've identified pied wagtails and a goshawk. The last excursion into the wood I took I ended up with a multitude of horrible little spiders in my hair (even writing about it is making me writhe again) so that has put a slight dampener on my enthusiasm... But nonetheless I'm hoping to go forth and boldly identify birds without ending up with too many birds which are only seen in Lapland or rare ones on the brink of extinction!

1 comment:

Liz Hinds said...

My bird-spotting skills are on a par with yours. There was the time I saw a penguin off Langland ...

I have recently rediscovered the library and, like you, found that my card still works. Wonderful places.