A couple of weekends ago I spent a brisk and energetic afternoon down at Willen Lake (local-ish beauty spot. Sort of. Buddhist monks & an awful lot of geese notwithstanding) trying to retrieve a very big kite from the top of an annoyingly un-climbable tree.

It having been a bit windier than I thought, the line had snapped  and the kite ended up in the trees. I did eventually manage to get it  back, (at the cost of a mildly strained shoulder on account of a lot of pulling) which was very satisfying, but the aspect of the thing I treasure is the casual nods and wry smiles of the dozen or so people that walked past the clump of trees whilst I was leaping about in the undergrowth, cursing and swearing and apparently intent on bending a tree in half.

I wonder how many of them subsequently mentioned meeting a nutter in the woods ? Just as well that I don’t
think any of them saw me test-flying the re-bridled kite a week later…..in the dark. It was a very windy day, and I had to wait ’till dusk for the wind to drop a bit to lessen the risk of the line snapping again. I’m happy to report that it didn’t, and I had a thoroughly exhilarating hour or so.

With the added bonus that it was too dark to tell if passers-by were giving me funny looks.