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A New Way of Releasing

And Coming at One with Nature
by cambridgelass
November 21, 2006
It was a sunny day out so my family and I decided to take a walk through our local country park.

We took bread to feed the swans and their signets. We walked through the woodland and found a delightful spot where the swans were awaiting their daily feed of bread from passersby.
I stuck my hand in the bag of crumbs and threw my arm out towards the swans and released the food, there was a SPLASH as a did so. I thought that maybe the fish were coming up for the bread and then to my horror I saw the book that I had been carrying was slowly making a break for freedom in the water.

I'd forgotten it was tucked snugly under my arm and in the sheer excitement of feeding the birds, the book was thrown in the water along with the bread. Now as you know, retrieving something from a large reserve is not an easy task but it was made even harder by the fact that there were some very hungry swans waiting for their food.
Luckily I managed to lean in and get the book without any harm, but I can't say the same for my book; it had doubled in size and I thought that was the end of it.
All was not lost, I am a very experienced book dryer as I am a serial bath book dropper, and as we drove home I had the book hanging out the window. The book took two days to dry but it is still rather large -- scarred for life you would say -- but both the book and I have lived to tell the tale and will continue to feed the ducks and swans although I will not take a book with me next time.


Editor's note: it's not too often that a member article gives us such an easy set-up to say, "and now a word from our sponsor...", but in this case, we couldn't help but to suggest that cambridgelass and others 'in the same boat' might want to carry some release bags along with them in the event of future hydro-releases. Of course, we have to credit member Skyring for perfecting the water-release technique (perhaps we can persuade him to offer classes at an upcoming convention).

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