It's was a beautiful February morning. I hurried getting washed and dressed. Nothing was prepared but as soon as I realised that Zak really meant that we were having a day out I very quickly rallied round, making some sandwiches and packing a bag. He made a flask of hot water because cold was a bit too much this time of the year. We didn't ever take tea or coffee these days because the flask sometimes leaked whereas water doesn't leave any stains or a sticky mess should it leak.

We decided in our usual way where we were going and collected our camera gear, walking shoes etc. together. It was about 10 a.m. before we finally left the house. I hadn't had time to prepare anything for dinner in the evening but decided that we would be all right eating just burgers and chips so long as we didn't make a habit of it.

As we started our journey the day was just beginning to warm up slightly. The sun was bright and it was one of those days that you could only describe as being pleasant, not too hot by any stretch of the imagination but a real treat to see and feel the gentle warmth of the sun with all the psychological pleasures that it brings.

I was just beginning to enjoy the serenity of the morning when Zak put the radio on. My attention was taken for a while by the sarcastic humour of the DJ before I could re-grasp the atmosphere only found on rare occasions in nature. I gazed out the window and was rewarded by the sight of almost newly born lambs wobbling unsteadily by the side of their mothers. I looked at one in particular noticing how whiter then white its ears seemed to be as the sun shone through them. As our car rolled past these delightful sights, firstly the lambs and then some horses, I looked but was no longer looking or seeing. The tiny baby lambs had fired my imagination and I found myself musing on various aspects of lambs and sheep.

'Why I wondered, do sheep have their lambs so early in the year? It was only the beginning of February and already a great proportion of baby lambs were gambolling around. Why, according to the rules of evolution, were they having their babies during the coldest months of the year when grass was at its shortest. Bad weather and lambing are a fatal combination, as the vet and the farmer know so well, so why instead of spending money on cloning sheep didn't we spend money by helping nature and evolution to make a better choice.' I began to think that sheep were pretty stupid animals but emerged from my trance as we slowed for a roundabout.

During the remainder of the journey we chatted through the muffled garbling coming from the radio, until, suddenly, Zak asked,
'Which car park, the one by the river or the one in the centre?'
I answered quickly and without thought,
'the one by the river.'
As these words were tripping from my mouth alarm bells began to ring in my head. I thought to myself;
'that was a choice but I'm not at all sure that I've made my choice, I think I've just said what I was expected to say.

As we made our way through the narrow main street of this picturesque village, over the little bridge and into the car park by the river I continued to examine the validity of the choice I had made.
'There are so many unspoken words.' I concluded to myself.

Parking proved to be a little difficult, there was not much space per car and the car park wasn't square or uniform. It was surrounded by a large stonewall that jutted out in one place leaving a tight squeeze for the people parked nearby and the cars trying to pass. Eventually after some shuffling in and out of our space we were ensconced successfully. Before setting off on our walk there were one or two chores to do; things like getting the car parking ticket, a visit to the toilet etc. We decided to have something to eat before our walk but didn't eat the whole of our picnic.

Eagerly I set off from the car whilst Zak locked up. I headed straight for the river, which was full and gushing at this time of the year. The cold dark water crashed against some large rocks situated almost in the middle of the river. The water forming beautiful displays of white water that were both soft and crystal clear, it then formed small eddies before rushing uninterrupted until meeting the next rock. Both the land and the air were cold but the suns rays were warming, battling against the cold, struggling to put something back into the earth as if to try to force an early spring. Zak soon caught me up and we stood for a few moments just taking in the magnificence of all that surrounded us. For those few moments all our worries and problems were just completely surpassed by the beauty and power of nature.

We took out our cameras and began to take a picture or two. I think with his new camera and tripod Zak was quietly confident of taking some pictures far superior to any I would take. That didn't matter much to me, I would get some photos that I would enjoy later on and that's all I cared about. We walked along the river for some way before we began to take a few more pictures. This time we sort of wandered off from each other, taking pictures as we went, some of the river, some of the unusual shapes of the trees and some of the scene as a whole. I sat in the sunshine on a rock near the river and again my thoughts returned to the choice I had made earlier about the car park. My true concern was that over the years I had lost and worse still, replaced any mechanisms I once had for making choices - silly thoughts!

Suddenly I realised that I had been sitting, musing, for quite some time and the cold air had begun to bite. I jumped up and looked for Zak. Quite surprisingly he had passed me bye and was up ahead, both his tripod and he were outspread as he stooped over it to take another picture.

I gave him a wave and caught-up to him. We walked and talked for a while before deciding to turn back. We stopped only once or twice in order to take a photo on the way back to the car.

Once in the car we warmed-up with a cup of hot water from the flask and indulged ourselves with the rest of the picnic. As we sat eating we noticed some canoeists returning to their van. We realised that we had missed what would have been some good photography but we didn't really mind because we were perhaps more in need of tranquillity than anything else.

Feeling well satisfied we left the car and headed into the small village. There was a funny mixture of shops, not many of them were for the general needs of the local people. We found a bench and sat there watching the people for a spell; many of them were just moseying from shop to shop. We walked right to the other end of the village before crossing the road in order to view the other side on our way back. Almost in the centre of the village we came across a church. It was an old looking church and the trees, garden and pathway around it looked very dark and dusty which was in contrast to the rest of the village. The church was situated on a corner plot adjacent to a very small road that ran into the village's main road. We turned the corner and walked along by the side of the church; there was a slight dip before a steep ascent. As we were walking past the church, down the dip I noticed a remarkable change in the atmosphere. It was much colder than elsewhere and quieter too. I mentioned this to Zak knowing that he wouldn't take me seriously. For some time now I had been interested in the possibility of some sort of afterlife or a spirit life that we hadn't yet verified. I was totally unable to talk to him on this subject, he was a man of fixed ideas and notions, and one of his notions was that I could not possibly be aware of any spirit life other than if I was hallucinating or something like that.

I said nothing further about my feeling around the old church as we started to walk up the steep ascent. We came to a map on a signpost and after studying it we decided that the time limit on our parking ticket would prohibit this walk on this particular day.

We walked back into the centre of the village where we bought ourselves a delicious cake from the local shop before returning back towards the car. Just before we reached the car we found a low wall to sit on and ate our cake.

There were more people milling about now all seemingly happy and contented. We knew however that it would be beginning to get dark in the next hour or so, and would become bitterly cold once more.

We wandered back to the car and drove home.