online: 9 september 2009 modified: 9, 20 september 2009 8 september 2009 warm weather
in a city park
...sitting beneath tall beeches that surround a lawn next to a mansion... most people are not moving but sunbathing or sitting in the shadows... no sign of the geese but the spirit of Goethe and the 18th century pervades this utopian park and architecture... was that the first historical period in which thought and individuality were put before religion and worldly power (though by no means liberated from hierarchy)?...
...having sat here for half an hour i've cooled down after walking in the bright sunlight that i usually avoid (as my Celtic skin is susceptible to radiation damage - i've been evading strong sun for 30 years)... today there is a gentle breeze of dry air from the northeast - a land wind from Russia that is foreign to those of us brought up in the warm wet south westerly winds of the Atlantic coast...
... the shadows about me are moving faster than i'd believe... about 1 or 2 metres an hour... a speed one can barely detect while casually looking about but enough to transform the landscape every few hours...
...yes, here we are, 200 years later, enjoying the half-invisible forethought of our humanist ancestors who conceived and realised this haven or heaven of the parks and even forests that survive in many cities that otherwise would be more hellish than some of us can withstand...
...but how odd: at first i wrote 'widdstand' for 'withstand' - dd is the way the th sound is written in Welsh!... i've several times caught myself spelling words according to sound and not visual correctness... is it common in old age and is anyone researching this phenomenon?...
battery getting low... as i prepare to leave i suddenly perceive this almost static scene as a slow ballet in which all of us are acting as one - what a pleasant thing to witness or to imagine, especially if voluntary or unconscious!
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