Everything Ducky in Chill-Chester

According to Wikipedia, "the poet and artist William Blake was
tried in the guildhall located in the park."

I was going to write about my few days in London, including my visit to the Tate Modern and Selhurst Park. I was going to write about moving down to Chichester — the beautiful train ride through the English country-side, then my first explorations of this beautiful small town. I was going to write about my tour around the famous Chichester Cathedral, followed by a slow walk through the town's High Street, which happily provided me the opportunity to stop in a little boutique and buy the two coolest warm-weather shirts I have in ... a decade.

I have photos to substantiate and illustrate all of it, too!

But it'll have to wait. First, a quick post about my late-afternoon run yesterday, which took me from my gorgeous flat on St. Agnes Place up to and around Priory Park, on the raised path on the interior side of the old medieval walls that surround the park.

This town is so small, and calm, and relaxed, and chill. Chill-chester!

My back was pretty stiff, so as I approached the park itself I was running gingerly (and slowly!), but I had my running app activated to track my progress, and I was toddling along ok, listening to my Sherlock Holmes podcast as I entered the park to discover a slow-paced — though aren't they all — leisurely cricket match being played on the oval, with two dozen or so spectators outside the oval on blankets with bottles of beer or white wine, enjoying the sunny afternoon. 

Clearly riveted by the action

What with the cricket players in their whites ... it was about as idyllic (and as British!) as I could ask for, so my running app be damned, I was forced to stop several times, from different perspectives, trying to capture some of the "action."

According to Wikipedia, this was the Chichester Priory Park Cricket Club, playing in the Sussex Cricket League Division Two. Since I had to be home by midnight, I have no idea who won.

Dave Stuckey: Action Photographer

As I was heading on my last lap, a man watching the cricket gestured at me and said "you don't see that every day." When I expressed incomprehension he gestured at the cricket match, which had stopped so one of the outfielders could escort a duck and its ducklings off the oval.

Notice quietly emphatic gesture by cricket player, and compliant duck-family.
Everyone's so polite here!

The ducks kept the rest of their walk pretty much directly alongside — but outside —the oval, allowing the game to continue.

Then, finally, directly up past me and along the wall itself. Perhaps they too were going for a run?

Just to be clear, the woman in the video is gesturing at the couple approaching behind me, on bikes, not at me.

Ok, that's a lot of duck videos. But it was all so charming, and peaceful, and beautiful, on this gorgeous 75-degree crystal-clear lazy Saturday afternoon in a small English town, that I found myself a bit overwhelmed with it all, and I wanted to share.

This adventure of mine is unfortunate, of course, and it's not what I would have planned at all. But but, assuming the costs I've incurred don't lead to my bankruptcy in my early 60s sometime, and with the caveat that I wish I had a traveling companion to share this all with ... I can't regret it. These are special memories, and experiences, and I'm glad I have them.

So, then, I went home, made some spaghetti, and learned that my mother was in the hospital with a health crisis (she seems to be ok). Life throws its ups and downs at you. But I guess it's important to take note of the ups. That run yesterday around Priory Park turned out to be a real "up."