king of the new year

I took this picture today in the woods during a brief spell of sunshine – we’ve had hailstones, gales and rain as well.

It’s actually a rusted pipe and wood, sporting a moss ruff. As I walked by on the muddy track with my dog Minnie by I saw it out of the corner of my eye and the title ‘King of the New Year’ arced across my mind.

The skinny King leaned against a huge boulder, carpeted in moss, and I had to scramble a bit off the road to get a decent shot. I only had my mobile phone with me, so it’s not as nice a shot as I would have liked.

This strikes me as a good example of how our brain pattern-matches shapes and lends them cohesion, and sometimes narrative (well, in my case).

A survival instinct that was all about the brain’s ability to scream Tiger! based on a couple of lines suggesting a predator stalking us in the bushes turns into a neat way to entertain ourselves.