Busy Doing Nothing

o Saint today! Instead, let us celebrate World Sauntering Day. I am not sure if this really is an ‘official’ day – I believe it was set up by an American hotel owner or manager in the 1970s. But it sounds such a nice idea I think we should adopt it. Sauntering, according to my dictionary, means walking about in idle or leisurely manner. 

So take life easy, relax and unwind, enjoy the weather (whether it is nice or not), go for a gentle stroll and admire the view, follow a different route to usual and see where it takes you, feed the ducks or make a daisy chain. And think about the things that make you happy. After all, as WH Davies says in his poem Leisure, What is this life if full if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?

I was going to stroll along the canal (the Coventry Canal runs nearby) and the weather turned out glorious, but I still don't feel well - I seem to have picked up a cold, and my head aches, my throat is sore, and my sinuses are painful, so I've mooched aimlessly around the house, doing very little, which is kind of sauntering, even if it's not outside in the sunshine.

So, since I didn't get to take my walk, I've posted these photos I took a couple of weeks back, on the towpath near the boatyard. These two mallard drakes made me laugh, because they looked and sounded as if they were having a conversation. I think they were having an aimless sort of day, hanging around on the path and not doing anything very much at all, which is pretty much how I spent the day... Busy Doing Nothing!