online: 17 november 2010 modified: 16, 17, 23 november 2010 16 november 2010 mist and sun and winter darkness
city forest
..i wake to total mist... as if the air has become visible.... a fragile translucent substance in which we exist this morning... as if on a gaseous planet (like Jupiter or Saturn)... by afternoon the predicted all-day fog has disappeared... as the wind unexpectedly veers from south east to south west... and clear sunshine prevails...
...a short walk near highest part of the heath... Atlantic clouds arrive... i keep to high ground .. avoiding the still-misty valleys... preferring not to breathe air that's damp and cold...
...pausing at look at scores of leaves (yellow, pale green and brown) suspended as if in space... in the curved lines and planes of organic growth... while their supporting twigs and branches remained in shade, invisible... at first sight this seems miraculous... and still it is... as is everything... despite theoretical knowledge... if self-awareness is forgotten...
...i'm now in the warmer drier air inside a bus (on way to obtain slippery elm and other health foods)... and i see my apparently calm exterior reflected in a glass partition ... remembering bodily sensations that do not correspond to the outside view of oneself...
...in another bus (on way back from health food shop and a post office)... two small boys on the seat in front turn round to speak to their grandma who is sitting beside me.... immediately they notice a big white plaster on my cheek...what is it?... i've hurt myself, i say... been to hospital ... for a second they are full of pity... then they tell me grandma has a cross on her head... i look and see it... and i ask her if it is the cross of Jesus... she says yes and that she is a Roman Catholic... the boys now tell me other of things that i don't quite hear... but i like their lively openess... and that of most people, it seems, in this part of London...
...now the bus cuts through the forest in the dark... few street lights... for this is not a street.... 'Kenwood House' says a recorded voice ... then 'Spaniards Inn'... 'Hampstead Heath'... then 'Jack Straws Castle'... in the dark outside the bus a man runs past in a high visibility jacket...
...and now we descend through a cutting to Golders Green ... stopping at Hampstead Way we pass a castle-like building that was once Pavlova's house and studio... and now it's a Jewish cultural centre...
...waiting for the next bus, i look up and see not only the new moon but a bright star or planet close to it... visible despite the street lighting etc... could this be the international space station?... i find an image of it via Google but it looks less bright than any planet...
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