online: 28 january 2013 modified: 27, 28 january 2013 27 january 2013 windy day clear sky
heath extension after snow
....west wind and clear sky with occasional fleecy clouds... a man and a woman flying a kite... the man knows how to make it climb nearly vertically until it is almost overhead... the woman relaunches it when it falls to the ground...
...a few people walking... now that an atlantic wind has melted the remaining snow... which yesterday was still icy and dangerous to walk on...
...this scene of fields and trees... beyond which is the garden suburb (and beyond that is what i take to be the prehistoric Ridgeway)... this scene reassures me... induces a feeling of being at home here on earth...
...an energetic magpie swoops down to the grass and turns (with rapid wing flapping) to face the wind on landing...where it stays only a few seconds before flying nearly vertically until it's at treetop height before flying out of sight... a woman with a huge and very obedient black dog who walks... and stands... and walks again... exactly when she does...
...i look around before deciding which way to go... now that the snow has melted... and i feel free to go in any direction (after a week indoors)...
...to avoid muddy ground to the east i go south to climb the only steep hill in the vicinity... and i'm now resting on a seat facing north... from where one can look down at the fields and garden suburb etc through the trees which are swaying in the gusts of wind that create sounds almost stormy... though the air is very dry and the sun is shining brightly...
...walking through the forest that's grown spontaneously on Sandy Heath i see a white thing about half a metre square in the middle distance... which i investigate... amazed to find that it's a remaining bit of snow... why has it not melted?... is it because it's suspended a few centimetres above the ground on a layer of fallen stalks of vegetation... or is it because it's in the shade of some vegetation still standing.... i did pass several ponds that are still half-iced-over (so perhaps the west wind is not as warm as i think... it's hard to guess the temperature of the air when it's so windy and so gusty)...
...and now i pass some more patches of unmelted snow which seem be in shadow
...but why bother about causes.. they often seem like measures of mind... not of nature ?
....walking on a long pavement beside a wall i find i'm moving irregularly... and my sight's become irregular also... yet both walk and sight seem unimpaired when on irregular ground and amongst the more complex sights in the forest... yes, i've long ago noticed that i feel more at home in nature as we call it than when in rectangular streets or inside buildings...
...but as i edit this i'm in a rectangular apartment... that i like... perhaps because i'm well adapted to it...
You may transmit this text to anyone for any non-commercial
purpose if you include the copyright line and this notice and if you
respect the copyright of quotations.
If you wish to reproduce any of this text commercially please
send a copyright permission request to jcj at publicwriting.net
