online: 23 march 2009 modified: 23 march 2009 22 march 2009 with oysters and affection
on a sunday afternoon
...i'm sitting on Beech Mount, one of the few places on the heath that is not full of people this afternoon... i hear a woodpecker (or other bird?) drilling in the distance, the first i've heard this year...
...but this spot is not what it was... not only is the largest beech tree gone (it fell in a storm about 20 years ago, soon after I made a drawing of it) but a fine and popular walk through this clearing-with-pine-trees has for years been obstructed by a wire fence - which has now been made impassable by the addition of a hedge of dead branches... as is more and more of the heath... (i don't want to make this diary a place for protests or grumbles, but today i am thinking them)...
...the little altar (or shrine) in this byway is today revived with oyster shells and feathers... which reminds me of the oysters that someone gave me in Brittany... and that alters the course of my thoughts and of this writing... that and the sounds of the woodpecker and the sounds of other birds... and the sight of so many of us enjoying (though overcrowding) this city forest today...
...i decide to walk on...
...a woman walking between two men suddenly holds a hand of each... but one looks surprised and then she let's go of both, and continues walking... a little behind them... how would life be if it was customary to hold hands with anyone?... when I was a child few adults held hands in public... only children did, or children and parents...
...i'm sitting now at a familiar seat that is inscribed in memory of 'Meta Dachinger, artist'... i am pleased that i can recall that much of the inscription without looking... what i did not recall is '1916 -1983 in loving memory'...
...looking about I see that bramble branches are already in leaf... though most trees are still bare... a north wind is blowing a few thin clouds across the sky and the topmost branches of the trees are still catching the light of the sun... while the ground is already in shadow...
...editing this now, on monday afternoon, i am glad to be back in this pleasant routine in cityforest walk and in web log... (which i prefer not to call blog)... and hasten to put it online... glad that that is possible!
...at which there is a sudden rainstorm and loud wind with 'whole trees in motion' (as it says in the Beaufort scale of wind velocity)... but soon the storm is over and what we call normal weather resumes...
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