online: 8 august 2009 modified: 7, 8 august 2009 7 august 2009 cloudless and still
Vale of Health Pond
...the water surface is barely moving and the sky is pale blue... pale yellow towards the horizon... two swans emerge from trees that are growing over the water... very little sound in the pauses between aircraft approaching Heathrow... i can hear voices far away... and i see shimmering images of trees and houses reflected in the pond...
...a tall man with a catapult projects bait close to the edge of a floating island of water lilies and then casts a fishing line within 2 or 3 metres of the same area of water... slight splash 50 metres from where i am siting as he casts again from about that distance... the two swans reappear and bury their heads and necks in the water... this is life (is it not) as it is all over the surface of the earth... or on any planets suited to organic and sapient process... and as i wrote that about ten geese honking continuously flew over at a height (i estimate) of several hundred metres...
...already the light fades and i decide to stand up and continue walking...
...and as i cross a road in semi-darkness i pass a boy of about 4 with a miniature bicycle, a safety helmet, a rucksack, a radio controlled model car and an obedient man who seems to be adjusting the controls and who i suppose paid for these things...
...seeking a place to continue writing i go to a cafe where i am persuaded to take an ice cream with chocolate sauce and a couple of decorative strawberries together with the cheesecake and camomile tea i first asked for... different indeed from the health food that i habitually eat... and a surprising contrast to the blackberries i gathered and ate on the way here this evening after the carrot and soyaflower soup i cooked and ate before leaving... and now to go to the supermarket before it closes... for my fridge is empty...
on return:
i feel impelled to include some words about the writings of Immanuel Kant:
...his shocking claim that the order and regularity we observe in nature is our own ... because what we count as part of the natural word is a reflection of our own internal standards that are necessary for cognition.
from page xlviii of Patricia W. Kitcher's introduction to: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, translated by Werner S. Pluhar, Hackett Publising Company Inc, Indianapolis/Cambridge 1996.
...one of several quotations and thoughts that i copied in pencil onto the empty pages of this book, 20 may 2005, and such as are written in many of my books...
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