{"id":54595,"date":"2025-05-03T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54595"},"modified":"2025-05-02T19:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T18:48:18","slug":"scrappy-dabblers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54595","title":{"rendered":"Scrappy Dabblers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Copyright Urban Mole<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s stopped raining. Moreover, because my weather app says \u201covercast all day\u201d, the sun\u2019s come out. Time for a walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a wedge of scrubland in the south that\u2019s bordered by a rail line and busy four-lane road, but otherwise peaceful. Several metres above the track(*) is a dilapidated, yellow-brick roundhouse with a turntable out front. It looks amazing on days with lush winter light, its colourful grafitti aglow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t one of those days. It\u2019s wet underfoot and I watch the ground carefully as I walk. Not for slick mud but shit. This area\u2019s beloved of dog walkers and rivals a Paris arrondissement for excrement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I make my way along a little dry ground roadwards, I notice something odd. Two Mallards are coming down the off-ramp towards a sizeable puddle. I stop and watch as the drake wades in and finds a deep enough spot to float. The hen follows closely behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there they bob, serene, as half of Leipzig flashes by behind them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scrubland\u2019s no stranger to exotic beasts. Several times a summer a circus pitches up here, with camels, Macaws, donkeys \u2026. Many look a little worse for wear, sadly, but the sight of so many caravans and cables running over the nearby office blocks is a spectacle. Come at the right time and you can hear the performers swearing between shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching them erect the massive tent is mesmerising \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No circus today though, just two dabblers. I turn off towards the roundhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On clement eves you can hear the clack and grind of skateboards coming from inside and catch glimpses of ollies and kick-flips. Teens sit outside on the turntable, smoking and drinking. It\u2019s a vibrant place. They\u2019ll probably knock it down for development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walk south parallel to the rail line. Every few minutes a train passes. The soft cha-chap, cha-chap<\/em> of the wheels is comforting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to skirt around more lakes. It really hasn\u2019t rained that hard, but the ground doesn\u2019t drain well. It does support a wide variety of plants though. The Mathematician could tell you which. She uses an app<\/a> to identify and record them \u2014 her bit for citizen science. (One of many).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Me, I\u2019m all about the feels. And I\u2019m feeling the ground sink. I move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an exciting bit coming up: a shimmy down a steep bank to a gravel path that leads under a road and tram bridge. (Rails crossing rails!) Alongside the bridge run giant steel gas pipes, snaking their way through the suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down here\u2019s where I bump into a man looking lost, carrying a pair of license plates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMisplaced your car?\u201d I might have said back in Blighty, but that sort of snark\u2019s not welcome here. (People might laugh, but only after they\u2019ve first explained to you that no, their car is parked a few streets away, they\u2019re merely transporting an unrelated pair of plates for some other purpose which doesn\u2019t concern you.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you know how I can get across the rail tracks?\u201d the man asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look at him, turn, and point down the way I\u2019ve come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, there\u2019s another bridge about 400 metres that way, or \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We both look at the bridge above us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHm. I actually need to get to a house along this street.\u201d He points in the direction the bridge runs. \u201cI think I\u2019ll just turn around. There\u2019s a footpath up there, isn\u2019t there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOK. Thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He turns and heads back, adding a bit more brown to his white shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duck out of water one end, ducks in it at the other. There\u2019s always something happening on the scrubland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

(*) Which is to say, the modern rail line is cut several metres into the earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One man. Two ducks. A lot of puddles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[214,216,209,215],"class_list":{"0":"post-54595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cf","8":"tag-city-fables","9":"tag-ducks","10":"tag-leipzig","11":"tag-urban-nature"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54595"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54597,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54595\/revisions\/54597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}