Wildlife is scary

A dear friend of mine pointed out yesterday how ironic it was that I had to move to such a big city as Liverpool to discover wildlife. It might sound absurd, but that is exactly what happened. As I said in the previous blogpost, two days ago, Julia and I went to Sefton Park. Sefton Park is a humongously huge park (2,6 km² / 640 acres) and I had been there before, but as I soon found out, the part I had been in is on the completely opposite side. So, this was like a whole new park for me. We entered the park over a sloppy swamp-like field, tried to get into the beautiful Palm House but found the gate locked and thus decided to just take a walk. On this side of the park, there is lovely water-garden with stepstone-bridges, waterfalls and lots of flowers. After being amazed by the pitoresque value of it all and smiling at some kids staring at a dog, we continued our walk, when, at a certain point, I spotted a squirrel. Now, I didn't just spot it in a tree or on a nearby branch; no, I spotted it right in front of my feet. There was maybe a metre between me and him and he was fastly approaching. Overwhelmed by the sheer cuteness of the little guy, I suppressed the urge to pet him and noticed he was coming closer and closer to my bag which held some delicious Bramley Apple Pie. Unwilling to part with my precious pies, I decided to feed the animal a winegum. Yes, that is correct. A winegum. You would think the little bugger would just let it lie there, but no, it picked the sweet up in his cute little paws and ran off to a nearby branch. As I wanted to preserve this moment for prosperity ("I fed a squirrel! So cute!"), I whipped out my phone and tried to take a picture. Alas, the squirrel was intrigued and dropped the sweet. Slightly disappointed, we turned round to continue our walk, when I saw the squirrel running in my direction. Yes, running. It is surprising how fast those little paws can cross a distance. Shoo-ing did not work, running was useless, so in total despair, I let out a high-pitched cry and threw the vermin another sweet. Alas, I threw it too far and after a short glance over his shoulder, the animal charged again. Again I threw a sweet and ran off in the other direction, hoping for a quick escape. But what did I discover, sitting on the path and then, running towards me? Another squirrel! I was surrounded by squirrels and what was more, the road ended at the gates of the closed Palm House! The only way out was past the first squirrel, who had by then been joined by a group of pigeons interesting in a piece of the loot. Desperate to get away, I stormed of the hilly road, shouting and waving my arms, in the hopes of chasing all these horrible animals away. And what'd you know, it actually worked. Relieved as I was, I ran around the corner, only to find a rat crossing my path! The thing about rats is, they are actually really cute. They are not the horrible creatures described in horror tales, no, they're fuzzy little things with a long tail which actually look a little like mice. I pointed out the rat to my couchsurfer, only to see another one leisurely strolling along the river side and taking a plunge in the stream.

We had to sit down and eat some pie after that, giving me the chance to come to my senses again before we set out to home again, dodging the rain by seconds.