Punting

Yesterday I took my parents punting. It was cool, grey, spring afternoon, and all the foliage was bursting forth from the riverbanks. Actually, the foliage was rather on my mind (and on the rest of me) since I didn't acquit myself brilliantly to begin with, and managed to zig-zag into the sides rather a lot. Embarrassing, since I've already been punting with Adam this year, and my parents did rather better than me. We headed up through Magdalen gardens towards the parks, but unfortunately didn't make it as far as the rollers. Near the boundary of Magdalen, we acquired a flotilla of seven ducklings and their mum, who stayed with us for ages, as my parents fed them sandwich crumbs. My mum was punting on the way back when we went under one of the bridges, and amusingly, she didn't even have to duck. We got back with time to spare, so took a foray down towards Christchurch Meadow. The water-birds were out in force, as we saw three Canada goslings and some teeny weeny ball-of-fluff coot chicks. We also came across a punt of students reading poetry aloud to each other, and I had a real problem keeping a straight face. I took the pole on the last stretch, and was finally punting effortlessly. As we came under the beautiful stone arches of Magdalen Bridge, the bells in the college started to ring out, and I imagined I was a gondolier in Venice.

1,000 cranes

I bought a whole raft of pretty origami paper last weekend. I then found out about the old Japanese legend that whoever folds 1,000 cranes gets a wish. Any kind of challenge draws me like a moth to a flame, so I've started folding cranes in every spare moment. It's very soothing, the light crispness of the paper and the sharpness of the folds very satisfying. It may take me a very long time, but that is fine.