Walking through a village along Wainwright’s Coast to Coast in UK, we probably could be in any village noticing a roof, several chimneys and a bird nest. Is it a seagull? A female warming her eggs on a nest that blocks a chimney? We’re unaccustomed to seeing any chimneys and, at first, I wonder what they are protruding from a roof. Why so many chimneys? Why so many fireplaces? I’m a Queenslander at heart. My childhood in a warm tropical town did not include chimneys. How wonderful to walk and notice things of difference, things about which we are unaccustomed. How wonderful to wander at such a pace to see these oddities. Now I notice a patch of fur below the bird’s nest. A rat?
