Heading home last night on some back road in the middle of nowhere. On roads that might only see one person a day.

The sky that velvety black with faint wispy clouds. Barely visible.There's no wind, everything is still like a painting.
All the gauges on the car are fine. In a past life and the multitude of shitty bikes/vans/cars I have owned, on a road like this in the pitch dark miles from home the temperature or the fuel gauge would either climb or drop into the red! If it was going to happen it would happen then.

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The road ahead is lit up as I am on full beam. I keep my speed to what I know I can react to. A lot of people I know would speed up on roads like this at night as the headlights of an oncoming car would be seen in the distance giving some warning to slow down but experience again tells me that all I need is a farmer "just popping down the road" he knows well with no lights on to be around the corner. 
Thank fully last time I was on a bike and had a gap to squeeze past him at the moment of realisation. To this day I bet he still wishes he had lockable doors on his tractor after our close encounter.

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I have Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town L.P playing. Can still remember the day I bought this in '94. 
Thoughts bouncing back to what my life was like then. What I have done and seen since. The Army, serving in a war. Marriage,divorce.The friends I have seen die.The iconic bikes I have owned. The 3 businesses I have owned and now starting my 4th. Another failed relationship and being single again, 2 house moves.
And Marbles my lovely cat who has been through so much with me over the years, longer than some "friends".
I miss her and I want be home with her.

 

I take a corner and onto a straight piece of road. Not wide enough to take 2 cars side by side but a couple of gateways ahead to pull into if needed.

The headlights pick something up at the side of the road. Bruce is now singing Racing in the Streets.
Some say it is a follow up to "Born to Run" but it's more chilled. A bittersweet song that shows that the grass is never greener.

It's what happens when you have escaped and ridden off into the sunset. The sun comes up the next day and the wind is still as cold as the day before. It's your heart that has to change. Not the scenario, it's how you deal with it.

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The "thing" on the side of the road is not a rabbit I am sure. Definitely something. 
I get closer and the headlights do nothing to help me identify it.
I slow to a crawl and then to a stop, "What the........?"

And then it turns its head. Staring at me with BIG eyes full of curiosity. Not even blinking in the main beam of my headlights.
A full size, young by the condition of its feathers, Tawny Owl.

I dip the headlights and it sits there. Not bothered by the presence of this 2 ton lump of metal not 6 feet from it.
I turn the lights off to side lights and off with the engine. Still not bothered.
The 2 of us. On this road in the middle of nowhere. Though I suspect that "he" is a lot closer to home than I.

I wonder how many people share moments like this or do I have more than my fair share. It don't matter. I feel blessed every time.

At least 3 minutes have gone by (3 minutes to a photographer is a lifetime. a blink of an eye is 1 x 60th of a second. Trying to keep a camera still on a tripod for 30 seconds for a long exposure is like an eon of time) and this owl is still there. Calm as you like. 
Its head rotating from left to right. It's in no rush and I have no intention of moving it on. Why?

Then,with what looks like a good stretch, the sort you do when you get out of a rather comfy armchair and have to do some work that no-one else can do for you , it reaches out with its wings and with 2 movements it is off over the hedge and into the darkness. 

Timing works its best in comedy and music but also sometimes in nature. 
As "my owl" flew, it was at 5 mins 15 secs of this song (Playing now)
Perfect!

I start my car, pop in to first gear and away once again.
The journey is still just as long as before I stopped and I'm smiling to myself all the way home.