  
Two by TwoMonday 17th July 2000
   THE OLD WHITE NANNY GOAT is gone. As I glance at the cherry tree that she ring-barked last year, I realise that I'm being watched. A slim black cat that is sitting by the side of the lane.It trots off down towards the canal basin. A second black cat, almost identical to the first, skulks off into a garden, holding itself low-slung to the ground. I get the impression that it is intent on avoiding confrontation with cat number 1, as much as trying to avoid me. 
Two red hens, one with a scrawny neck, are pecking on the bridge by the basin.I've been busy writing my next book, so a few minutes stroll by the canal is all the time out I get today. Two cats, two hens . . . then two narrowboats cruise by, roped together. 
A cyclist has to pull up for the two hens, which seem oblivious to him. They pause and preen for a few seconds before they let him by.Apart from a Willow Warbler and a Coal Tit that's about all I see, but it's good to leave my studio and step briefly into a world that seems to be beyond clocktime, running to its own slow rhythms.
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