Day 139: Belgian Chocolate

Dung Beetle

For the last two days, St Albans has smelt manure-ish.  This has happened before, and it's not (sadly) a camp of Civil War re-enacters throwing dung around.  It's Europe.  Farmers in France and Belgium and Germany fertilising their fields. 

Belgian Chocolate Truffles

In certain weather conditions, the smell drifts over the Channel to the southeast of England.  Including London - although I've never been aware of it there.  I think London does a pretty good job of creating its own special pomander, drowning out any incoming smells.

There was a big fuss about it in 2008, when the smell was particularly potent.   A spokesman for the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium said: "There is a lot of wind coming into England from Belgium."  Incisive. 

I quite like it.  It feels like at any moment a herd of cows is going to mooch past.  Few days cannot be improved by a herd of cows.  The school I went to in Cranbrook was next to a field full of cows.  Every so often, for no apparent reason, they would stampede.  Thundering wildly around the perimeter of the fence.  Nobody paid any attention to the lesson.  Then as suddenly as they started, they'd stop.  No cool down.  Abruptly back to standing still and staring and chewing. 

As I say, few days cannot be improved by a herd of cows.  Even just the smell of one.