online: 1 december 2009 modified: 30 november 2009 30 november 2009 nature asleep
Sandy Heath and The Vale of Health
...beneath the skeleton of a large beech... surrounded by the husks of tall plants and transparent trees... sounds of power tools in the near distance (i passed builders arriving on my way here)... the ground is wet and the sky is pale blue with with pinkish clouds moving swiftly from north east to south west... a few crows fly between the leafless trees... and, as i look up, a single leaf flutters to earth where it joins thousands of other beech leaves, crinkled and reddish, amongst tufts of grass (still growing?) and nettles (half dead)...
...wintry as it is i'm happy to be here having overcome reluctance to go out and take exercise today... and now that i'm out, in this cold wind and weak sunlight, i've no wish to return indoors... for this is my place... (if anywhere is)...
...i pause to warm my writing hand in the body-heated interior of my pocket...
...to my right and to the west the sun is setting... an aircraft flies due east and at ground level the wind is less... the dead plant stalks are barely moving...
...it's time to walk on if i am to reach the Vale of Health (my chance-chosen destination) before it grows dark...
in a cafe:
...i descended from the highest seat (above the Vale) by walking a narrow path between (and occasionally beneath) the gorse bushes that have re-grown over this hillside since someone set fire to it about ten years ago... today i walked along a narrow passage beside the villa where Rabindranath Tagore stayed (in was it 1925?)... i wondered if any of the present residents know something of those times when D H Lawrence, and earlier Byron, Shelley and other writers, lived in or visited this miniature village or literary retreat... but i saw no one i could ask... our restrained public habits make such questions difficult to put... though no longer difficult if via the social softwares now thriving on the internet... with them we are changing our manners and our world...
...half reluctantly i've half joined Facebook so perhaps i should link my facebook page to this (and vice versa)?... though not yet knowing if that will lead to interesting experiences or just to overload or frustration...
...yes i must seek ways to react to Facebook with joy (not fear or irritation)... or else retreat from it... the more communicative world that i've thought and written about for much of my life is not quite the thing i imagined... the new software is not always softopian...
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