[Whitby] What's that sticking out?
Okay, so since I moved to Whitby on Monday, I've been sticking to a personal promise that I'm going to climb the 199 Steps at least once every single day I am here. So far, so good. But last night, at about ten pm...
At the top of the steps, tucked into the corner of the old churchyard, is a rubbish bin for the benefit of the tourists. As I was climbing up, I could see something poking out of the bin. At first, I thought it was a stuffed carrier bag half-crammed in - a roundish object, with a protruding bit that might have been a twisted-up handle...
It was twitching.
Now, bear in mind that I was completely alone, in the dark, in the just-starting rain, ten steps from a graveyard. A certain shiver went through me. There was something kind of disturbing, something very organic, about the way it was moving... I approached closer.
My thought process, as I got nearer, went along the lines of "That looks like an arse. Is that an arse? What kind of thing has a brindle-grey arse and would be head down in a bin? Is that a... oh, it can't be... what the fuck?!" as a large badger, apparently at least as surprised as I was, reversed with a scrabble of claws out of the bin, dropped to the ground, looked both ways with a distinct expression of "you didn't see that, right, mate, hush hush and all that?" and then bolted into the long grass of the graveyard. All I could do was stare and try not to laugh.
And I was literally three paces away when this happened. I have never been anywhere near that close to a badger before in my life. They are gorgeous! They have lovely intelligent faces and are surprisingly agile for something so bulky-looking, and those black and white Immortal-style muzzle stripes are really striking when you're seeing them on the living creature instead of a dead stuffed one or just a picture. Badgers FTW.
So yes, so far Whitby is awesome, thank you. ^_^
Laters,
Rath
At the top of the steps, tucked into the corner of the old churchyard, is a rubbish bin for the benefit of the tourists. As I was climbing up, I could see something poking out of the bin. At first, I thought it was a stuffed carrier bag half-crammed in - a roundish object, with a protruding bit that might have been a twisted-up handle...
It was twitching.
Now, bear in mind that I was completely alone, in the dark, in the just-starting rain, ten steps from a graveyard. A certain shiver went through me. There was something kind of disturbing, something very organic, about the way it was moving... I approached closer.
My thought process, as I got nearer, went along the lines of "That looks like an arse. Is that an arse? What kind of thing has a brindle-grey arse and would be head down in a bin? Is that a... oh, it can't be... what the fuck?!" as a large badger, apparently at least as surprised as I was, reversed with a scrabble of claws out of the bin, dropped to the ground, looked both ways with a distinct expression of "you didn't see that, right, mate, hush hush and all that?" and then bolted into the long grass of the graveyard. All I could do was stare and try not to laugh.
And I was literally three paces away when this happened. I have never been anywhere near that close to a badger before in my life. They are gorgeous! They have lovely intelligent faces and are surprisingly agile for something so bulky-looking, and those black and white Immortal-style muzzle stripes are really striking when you're seeing them on the living creature instead of a dead stuffed one or just a picture. Badgers FTW.
So yes, so far Whitby is awesome, thank you. ^_^
Laters,
Rath