Please excuse the hiatus in blogging. Life gets in the way.

LIfe is still getting in the way a bit. I have a couple of London Observations in hand (I'm going to move those onto a blog of their own in the near future), plus some bookblogging (whales! scientists! genius 12-year-old cartographers!), Skye and so on. How much of these I get to write at all, I don't know. But in the meantime, here is a picture of a wolf called Mosi, who I met yesterday on a walk through some woods near Reading, courtesy of the UK Wolf Conservation Trust.



It's a strange thing, meeting a wolf. Obviously, they look like dogs. But you very quickly realise that they aren't dogs. Dogs, let's face it, are a bit goofy. Easily distracted. Soppy. Wolves are none of these things. They are self-possessed and confident. They focus. They are quiet. They size you up, and they aren't going to go all gooey if you scratch them behind the ears.

In fact, their handlers tell you specifically not to scratch them behind the ears.

I like watching dogs. They wear their hearts on their sleeves. I do this thing I call 'dog ventriloquism' - you watch the dog, you watch its expression and body language, and you supply its inner monologue. Watch a dog at the beach. 'I'm running! I'm running! Look at me! Did you see that? Did you? Yay! Running into the water! Ohshitthatwater'scold!'

You can't do that with a wolf. Those golden eyes are piercing and unreadable. The best you're going to get is 'I know who I am. I know who my packmate is. Who are you?'

Beautiful, fascinating animals, and as enigmatic as a book in a foreign language, with a blank cover.