online: 26 july 2010 modified: 25 july 2010 25 july 2010 semi-wilderness
Vale of Health
...several rabbits, two or three magpies, and no people but myself, have been inhabiting this partly hidden valley for the last half-hour... and there is already a ladybird-like insect on my sleeve (until i flick it off)...
...i suppose each of us depends upon the surrounding grass and heather and broom and oaks, chestnuts, sycamores, hawthorns and brambles... and other plants i cannot name... if these were removed we would not be here...
...(and without the internet i would not be writing this)...
...four people each with a dog on a lead... and now a nearly naked man runs by... the rabbits are hiding and the magpies have flown away...
...normally i would be collecting blackberries but in this dry weather they are still green and uneatable...
...and now an enormous short-haired dog wearing a muzzle comes to sniff around this seat... luckily it does not investigate my picnic bag... before its owner calls it off with a quiet word or two in english... or perhaps i should call it doglish ? ...
...while digesting a smoked salmon and soft goats cheese sandwich and an apple i feel more and more settled here this evening... feeling at one with this composition of hillside and plants, animals, and even pets and people... and liking the fact of their being connected via this writing as well as by circumstance...
...the rabbits have now reappeared and are sitting on the ground to eat the grass... two leaves fall from one of the tall trees and the wind becomes visible in the motions of branches and of long grass...
and now, after sitting here for about an hour, the valley looks the same as it did when i arrived... i take a last look at everything and hear the cooing of a pigeon as i prepare to move on and get some exercise...
...exercise yes... as i bent and twisted my way through disused forest paths now almost grown over... but still accessible to humans... a walk of about a mile (1.5km)...
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