It’s 11.20 pm as I begin today’s scribble.  Today has been a good day, a real good day and that’s kind of funny because it started off crap.

I went into work, opened up the restaurant, went through the daily motions of breakfast and lunch, and all the while felt mopey and depressed, mainly because I don’t function very well with the monotony of daily routine.

I thrive when there’s variety and change.  The more monotonous it gets, the more I wilt like a parched plant.

While I mostly enjoy my job, I wish it wasn’t the same every day because that bores me to death.

I came home this evening however and, true to my current exercize/yoga buzz, changed into leggings, grabbed my resistance band and yoga blocks and proceeded to stretch and move for thirty minutes, after which I took the dogs off up the hill for a burst of cardio and the soft sights amd sounds of nature!

Funnily enough, all my woes disappeared, chased away by the lovely endorphins and the satisfaction of knowing I’m not turning into a lazy stodgy lump.

It helped that as I and the two fluff-meisters strolled a dirt track, a dark orange shape climbed out of the hedge and trotted on purposefully ahead of us.

A beautiful fox, sleek and lean, with the most incredible long bushy tail, just 15-20 feet ahead in broad daylight, utterly unaware of the trio ambling along behind him.

I was enthralled, avidly watching the creature in awe, so caught up it didn’t even occur to me to film it til later and I’m so glad of that because trying to video it would have taken away from the precious treat.

Instead I was focussed on absorbing every moment and movement of the gorgeous animal’s journey until finally he sensed us, looked around and upon realizing three other creatures were following him, took off at a gallop around the bend and out of sight.

That was my little bit of magic today, me and my fox.

I also got to enjoy vegetarian sushi prepared by my sweet Japanese neighbour, a feast laid out for me and Alex, Sachiko and her hubby and their lovely housemates; we ate great food, drank wine and tea and chatted a lot about India.

Ah yes, when you get to exercise in nature, are visited by a fox and can share great food and even better company…. you can’t help but feel happy.

Yes, today was a good day.  A very good day.

Ciao darlings!

Lizzie xxxx