online: 28 june 2006
modified: 27, 28 june 2006

(digital diary resumed)


27 june 2006 in the thick of existence


20:57 hockey field seat... 2 of the almost-never-flying (but usually-here-walking) crows are standing still on their usual spot (about 15m from this seat)... 2 others stand and walk, but much further away...

...in the distance i see 3 rabbits running about and grazing... a fox emerges from the undergrowth and then retreats into it... i suppose this is the beginning of night life on the heath... (it is already dusk)

...a thin man with a big backpack runs almost on tiptoe across the hockey ground and disappears into the forest of tall beeches and oaks...

...a magpie appears... and a mosquito has discovered the presence of my blood... the 4 crows are now in an almost straight line and i decide to walk in a direction parallel to it... towards where the fox disappeared...



(eventually this line led me to what is called Pryors Field, a swampy area of open heathland - but after months of drought it is dry)

21:27 seat in a meadow from which the dome of St Paul's is visible through a gap in the surrounding trees (over which the Canary Wharf towers are also visible)...

...as i feel the presence of the surrounding city, i realise that without it i'd not want to be here - the completeness of cityforest, plus sky and the jumbojet that's just climbed slowly and noisily towards the east... and the electric train i heard faintly in the distance... and the city lights now switching on in the dusk... without all these things (from the crows and the fox to the presence of this stylus and this electric screen) i'd not want to be here... but here i am in the thick of existence... the extreme range and beauty of this presence of 'everything', here on a planet, our imagined reality...

...i breathe-in quickly , then outwards with the full strength of my lungs, feeling satisfied... very...

...at pond 2 i hear an owl... and i hear it again...

...and on my way back i see a planet above Child's Hill... despite the glare of the city...





(these pages are designed to be read with the window set to two-thirds of the screen width)

what's new

atlas

homepage

daffodil email newsletter

© 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 john chris jones

You may transmit this text to anyone for any non-commercial purpose if you include the copyright line and this notice and if you respect the copyright of quotations.

If you wish to reproduce any of this text commercially please send a copyright permission request to jcj at publicwriting.net