online: 14 march 2013 modified: 13 march 2013 5 march 2013 first warm day
14 degrees C
...it's so warm that a minute grasshopper (about 3mm long) arrives with a huge leap (of about 300mm) from somewhere to land on my coat (about 100mm from my chin)... and then it jumps far away and out of sight...
...looking at the decayed wood chips leaves and twigs at my feet i see three new blades of grass appearing as if from the underworld... while a few metres away is a field of dry stalks of a tall wildflower that grew here last summer... 'here' being Sandy Heath (now a forest that grew spontaneously in the 20th century)...
...today there is a peacefulness that is only felt in warm air and open jackets and in gentle sunshine... but now a slight breeze that provokes tall stalks and fallen leaves into movement after stillness...
...a white-haired man walks quickly by... followed by a large black and white greyhound about 15m behind the man... who does not look back... confident perhaps that the dog will keep following at that distance...
...looking again at the long stalks standing before me i see a few that are not stalks but willows and aleady 2 metres high... all these being remarkable examples of structural engineering... and as i suppose is the Shard (the tallest new building recently completed in London)... and as is everything in nature as well as in afternature (a name i prefer to man-made)...
minutes later:
...at the highest seat and enjoying once more this scene i've described many times... today it appears different yet again... a low sunset to the north west which is illuminating tens or even hundreds of vertical buildings towards the horizon... and much closer are the treetops and gables of the Vale of Health village with its dozens of chimneypots and tv aerials and windows... and today a new sound that of someone hammering... out of sight somewhere in the village...
...it's getting cooler as the seat moves into shadow and the radiant heat felt here recently is now reflected into space and cloudless sky... so now i leave with a last look at the gorse blossoms once again... flowering at a tempo of their own... (several times a year)...
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