This Tuesday is not just like any ordinary Tuesday. The East Wind has subsided and there is a warmer blow from the West, but very gentle. The sun has risen and a blue sky without cloud covers the whole of the landscape. My friend Wooh has spent more than enough time indoors suffering from a cold that has downed his spirits and tempered his enthusiasm for life. This is about to change as he is drawn to the window of his cottage and sees the sun; its rays warming the stone of his pathway.
Wooh thinks, "Aha ... to the pleasure of walking down a country lane in spring time. The freshness of the new season is upon us." Quickly, Wooh downs his coffee with one great gulp, then marches to the closet to find a covering. He is not totally convinced the screw has turned. Wooh dawns his blue corduroy jacked that matches his blue corduroy jeans. "Don't I look good with my matching clothes," he thinks, then opens his front door to the sun and smells of the world of nature outside.
His eyes met the sun, that glorious ball of golden light shining steadily and serenely through the wide blue orbit of the sky. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Wooh thinks to himself. He steps outside the door and realizes his feet and legs are making their merry way towards the gate across the paddock. "I think I am in for a stroll," his mind is announcing. Sure enough, he has lost control and his legs seem to have taken over.
Forward and onward his legs move, totally in command, and with a purpose of their own. For now, the grey of the spring rain has gone and to Wooh, it is glorious. Wooh just observes what is happening to him. A magic of nature and living has invited him out for a stroll that he can not refuse. The stimulus of the sun precedes his own thoughts and he is helpless to their effect on parts of his anatomy that responds automatically. He is not thinking, but his body is reacting actively to the sunlight. His legs have taken over and his mind is helpless. He does not complain. After negotiating the style at the gate, his legs take him to the main pathway that leads past his country cottage along the crest of a hill that fall away from his home down to a winding stream many hundreds of yards below.
As he crosses the path he listens for the sound of horses hooves. It would not do to be trampled by a fast rider drunken with the scents and sounds of spring. Once across the pathway, Wooh finds his lane that leads between two high hedges down to the meadow many hundreds of yards away. He first hears and then sees two crows, who he identifies as Charly and Sally. They are perched in a tall tree away in the distance. They don't see him, but gently push off into the breeze and sail in a circle further down the hillside towards the stream.
There is a break in the hedge where there is a gate leading to a field. Wooh thinks he sees something in the field. It is a fox. "Now that is a surprise," thinks Wooh. "It's Rolly, the fox, and he seems to be up to something. He doesn't see me." Wooh assumes a fixed posture and leans on the gate not moving a muscle. "Perhaps, Rolly, won't see me if I am silent and motionless." Wooh watches Rolly for more than twenty minutes then becomes a bit bored as Rolly seems to be doing silly things like sniffing at the grass. "What on earth is he doing," wonders Wooh? He had hoped for some entertainment, but this was too much, and Wooh decides to leave without letting Rolly know he was watching. He backs up slowly and within seconds is behind the hedge and moving along the pathway to the meadow.
A few minutes later and Wooh had climbed a gate and was walking across the meadow to the home of Billy Badger. Well it seemed that Billy is around, but he is not showing his face to Wooh, who notices all the fresh prints and decides to move on.
WOOH SPARES 'BILLY BADGER' SOME PEACE AND QUIET
