...avoiding sun, i keep to the shadows and come to a field of summery growth, wild flowers and grasses... absorbing and transforming sunshine (and soil and water) into vegetation: thistles, some with purple flowers, some already turned into fluffy seed-parachutes, many types of grasses, campion, a yellow flower i cannot name, some already dried dock flowers, brambles growing amongst the roots of the tall grasses... and now i come to a large patch of 'invasive' thistles with all their flowers turned to fluff (some of it flying), butterflies, a patch of nettles... and now back into the shadows of the trees...
...i called at the skin clinic for a six-monthly check-up, the ostensible purpose of this walk... the doctor, who has been 'saving my skin' for nearly 24 years, told me that she is retiring and this is the last time she will be seeing me, unless we meet on the heath... 'at least we've both survived,' she said, 'and that is an achievement!'... i will be sorry not to receive her skilful attention any more...
...as i lie here after lunch i feel as if i will never leave this quiet spot, as if i am on holiday, as if this is now my home... i didn't bring my watch and i feel no sense of hurry, only a wish to continue resting, digesting, observing, and slowly writing whatever words appear, and sound, in these written thoughts that may embody something of the indescribable complexity of this place, or any other...
...while walking to my next stopping point i went down a newly cleared valley to see if there is any water in the stream... there wasn't any water, only sludge... turning round to look at the willows, birches, brambles and reeds i saw a blackbird that was standing on a low branch... it seemed unnaturally still, as if it didn't want to, or couldn't, fly away... i stood still for perhaps 10 minutes to see if it would move, but it didn't... soon after i saw it again from the footpath... it was still there on the same branch, moving only its head... (was it ill? ...there's no hospital for birds)
... on the seat overlooking a wooded valley... eventually i felt like walking and am gradually retracing the route i took this morning, keeping in shadow (to protect my vulnerable skin)... at this location i lay on the seat and almost slept as i watched butterflies moving about in a patch of tall grasses and dock... i've been here for perhaps an hour and almost no one has passed... i'm enjoying the feeling of good fortune to be free and at ease while others are at work (in this heat) poor things...
...during a long slow walk in the afternoon heat i turned along a narrow forest path that i'd never walked before... after a minute or so i surprised a naked man and a perhaps-about-to-be naked woman... he covered his genitals and neither of them spoke... as i walked on i half turned to apologise for disturbing them... i wish them well and was pleased to see the human animal in nature without clothes...
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© 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 john chris jonesIf you wish to reproduce any of this text commercially please send a copyright permission request to jcj at publicwriting.net