...a day of clear sky with a few pinkish clouds before evening haze and rain... the sun is low in the sky and warm on my face - a brief summery day in this unwintry winter as climate change alters our conception of the seasons...

...many fallen trees are now softening into the pastes and dusts of decaying timber... birds yes, but few or no insects in the air or on the ground or under decaying bark... but some miniature hills of sand or dust ejected from tiny holes in which some creatures may be living out this untypical winter... and there are sheep grazing in a fenced-off part of this much valued semi-wilderness... on which many people walk and run... seven kilometers (five miles) of path marked out with posts bearing the image of a sheep... and there is a shorter path marked by images of a dragonfly...

towards the end of the walk is a lookout tower of thin steel girders with a spiral stairway... climbed it nervously up to half way enjoying the feeling of being amongst and above the treetops but fearing to look downwards...

walking thus, in a wild landscape near to the cranes and tips and docks and highways of one of the most industrialised parts of the planet (or the universe) is indeed a pleasure, a marvel, an experience of great significance and value... though it becomes less if 'evaluated'!

thank you, thank you...

praise to god...

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atlas

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