online: 16 march 2013 modified: 15, 16 march 2013 15 march 2013 walking in the rain
Seven Sisters ponds
...the wind's turned to the south west but still it is almost too cold to resume walking... (i've been indoors for several days during arctic wind from the north east)... random numbers direct me to walk from point 8 (the Great Wall of the garden suburb) to point 1 (Parliament Hill) but cold and rain limit the walk to the length of the Seven Sisters ponds... and a steep hill in Sandy Heath...
...as soon as i get to pond 7 the rain becomes stronger and i am tempted to return... but realising body needs exercise i push myself a little...
...ground has turned from hardened mud to black slush... thank goodness i decided to wear waterproof shoes...
...did not notice any buds appearing in forest or pondside though remembered seeing buds of the hawthorn that grows outside my kitchen window... despite the cold weather since the first warm day (5th march)...
...slightly shocked to see that the pondside walk has been cleared of about half its trees and that a wooden fence has been partly replaced by hedging and partly by a new fence of wire netting supported by posts... the seat is too wet to sit on so i stand... looking at the water bouncing up a few centimetres where raindrops strike the water surface...
... i pause again to zip up my coat as the rain is getting stronger...
...after climbing the steep slope in Sandy Heath the second hand of my watch points towards the bus stop so i decide to walk there immediately... running a little to arrive before a bus leaves the stop... the door is already closed but the driver smiles as he reopens it and waves me towards the seats... (i guess that his wave tells me to swipe the payment card later)... and he is still smiling when i get out... and he smiles again when i hastily return to the bus to retrieve a dropped glove...
...on return i eat and then rest before selecting a book by chance to read while completing this entry... the book is a selection from the essays of William Hazlitt (1778-1830)... who makes the following remarks (among others) upon the Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592):
He did not ... undertake to say all that could be said upon a subject, but what in his capacity as an inquirer after truth he happened to know about it.
He ... wrote not to make converts of others to established creeds and prejudices, but to satisfy his own mind of the truth of things.
William Hazlitt, Selected Writings, Edited with an introduction by Ronald Blythe, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex 1970, pages 270 and 271.
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
