nature day Saturday: a small, greyish baby bird, sitting on the very steep path past the pipe bridge. bikes come down that path super-fast. there's a netting fence around it to stop people short-cutting across the erodeable slope. bird was sure to be skittled. so I stopped, put my rain jacket over the soft squirming thing (some nestlings fight: this one was either gentle, exhausted or terrified) and put it on the other side of the fence. It was still there, a metre or so away, when returned. I hope its parents will find it and feed it. either way, I have learned that it's not a good idea to bring baby birds home. they just die. i did what I could.

and then, ten minutes later, I looked down and there was a big COCKROACH on my right knee! reflex kicked in and I slapped my knee just next to it, knocking it off. ouch that stung.

adrift in the scrubby trees before the Big Hill on the Yarra trail: three green balloons, tied together, decorated with Happy Birthday in white.

coming back: a boy with I think his grandfather. aged about 10-11. kicking a stick into my path and glaring at me. again, there are things in the world that affect us, but we can do nothing about. I wonder what his story is: clearly an unhappy, angry boy, possibly struggling with existence in general.

waiting for cars to pass at Bulleen Road: a huge purple cement mixer goes past, blows a rush of air into my face. the driver probably didn't even see me. at the top of the hill past the golf course, a motorbike with its light on goes past, equally close. I feel invisible.

this morning: out on the racing bike, caffeinated. coming down a hill, I see a bird ahead. I think, well, bird small, world big. better to hit the bird than the planet. and I think about how the bird is really part of the planet, and so am I, sliding down this road at 40 kilometres an hour, harnessing gravity and the air rushing in my face and for a moment I really am part of everything and it's bliss to be a living thing.