It was beautiful this morning. The sun was shining, the air was crisp (for Australia) and it was pure joy to be out on my bike, especially as there aren’t too many hills here (unlike home in hilly Devon). I had gone only a kilometre when, overcome by the beauty of my surroundings, I simply had to stop and take some photographs of the rustic scene of gum trees and a homestead and cows in the distance. So I parked my bike against the fence and spent a delightful fifteen minutes walking up and down, searching out the best views and angles (with a view to sharing the shots with my blog readers).

I wish I could have taken a photograph of my face as I returned to my bike and took hold of the handlebars; you could say I was a bit shocked – right up my left arm and a thud to my heart! A fifteen-year-old boy with an earring in his lip walked by a moment later and I stopped him to tell him about about my shocking experience.

He said something I couldn’t make out and smiled effusively – I think he was sorry for me.

“At least they don’t want to kill the cows,” said Chris rather unsympathetically when I told him over the phone .

All I can say is… the poor cows (which is perhaps something akin to what the boy with the earring in his lip said).