...lookout seat... the distant hills are hidden by mist... the trees are now completely bare of leaves, the bracken looks beaten down, and a solitary squirrel is searching for food on bare branches... (are the other ones hibernating?)
...while crossing the road to the southern heath i see a graffiti of the letters S.T sprayed onto a bus shelter... to me this denotes 'spontaneous thoughts' - what i wonder does it mean to the person who sprayed it... and why exactly do graffists write in codes and letter forms that seem deliberately indecipherable yet the people who inscribe them take big risks to put them in positions visible to everyone (and not just to fellow graffitists)?... i once read that the purpose of graffiti is to mark territory (perhaps of gang members) but that may not be the whole story... there are graffiti that were inscribed on the walls of Roman buildings and even earlier...
(the battery has run out so i continue in pencil)
...on my way to the highest point i walked beneath two clusters of pine trees and felt a special enjoyment at doing so (is it that trees which don't shed their leaves seem tougher and more enduring than the others... or is it that i prefer the appearance of pine branches and needles?... but i doubt both these explanations)...
...from this seat the tall buildings in the City are reduced by mist to faint ghostly shapes beyond the still clearly visible rooftops of the Vale of Health...
...the gorse is in bloom again and the grass here is bright emerald green (is it is still growing slightly?)...
...13.23 at the tumulus (the first random point of this walk), sitting on the seat in memory of Ethel Copeland Campbell, 1897 to 1987, vegetarian, socialist pacifist... as i approached the tumulus two women were dancing and gesticulating on top of it, among the pine trees planted there... i nearly asked them what they were doing as i feel an ancestral interest in this Celtic burial place, if that's what it is...
...as i walked back i felt gossamer on my face as i walked through undergrowth between trees... i didn't expect it in winter - is it that no one has walked there since summer?...
...walking back through woodland i saw a solitary jay flying from branch to branch as i came nearer to it... then a crow, walking on the path before me... as i came nearer it changed to hopping, and then flew about 10 metres, and then started walking again, and then hopping, etc... was it telling me that birds have as much right to walk on paths as do people!
...i ended the walk in what i call 'the utopian valley' - it was the second random point in today's walk...
...and now that i am back i am eating some hot falafel with houmous while i type and edit this handwriting... later i'm going to cook an egg and banana pie... and perhaps sleep a little... before attempting again to continue the electric book, version 2... it seems to need thought...
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