Feathers, Birds, and Serendipity
Some things I know, some things I don’t know, and some things I just found out today. When I went for a walk today I headed south along the waterfront and quite soon saw something that captured my imagination. Someone had outlined an area of rough ground with a rectangle of feathers. It is beside a disused rail dock and there is very little foot traffic here.
I wondered who had done this and why. Perhaps an unhoused person likes to sleep here and was marking their territory. No matter the reason, it must have taken some time to create this.
Living in the gantries of the rail dock are thousands of noisy birds. I enjoyed watching them swooping down on to the beach and then taking turns to eat from the nearby blackberry bushes. My Merlin app tells me they are European Starlings.
I walked on from there over the Port Way viaduct to Esplanade where I saw a business that identified itself as a chandler, which is a title I am not familiar with so I determined that I would look it up when I got home. I thought it had something to do with candles but the shop’s signage seemed to be all about boats.
Then I passed this lovely billboard. I stopped to enjoy it when two people came out into the nearby garden and agreed with me it was very nice. They told me it was just a “placeholder” from the billboard company, but I said I didn’t care. It was still lovely.
As I headed towards the main road and the shopping centre, I came across four people who were clearly having trouble finding something on their phones’ GPS systems. One lady stopped me and asked if I knew where the chandlery was!
Well, “Yes I do! It is just around the corner,” I said as though I have known it my whole life, and I gave them directions. Serendipity is a wonderful thing.
And, according to Dictionary.com a chandler is:
- a person who makes or sells candles and sometimes other items of tallow or wax, as soap.
- a dealer or trader in supplies, provisions, etc., of a specialized type.a ship chandler.
- a retailer of provisions, groceries, etc.
So, I was both right and wrong at the same time.
#billboard #Birds #chandlery #feathers #nature #Photography #serendipity #wildlife