online: 20 june 2013 modified: 19, 20 june 2013 19 june 2013 in the present
Vale of Health pond
...descending on a steep path amidst chest high grasses newly grown i felt that (whatever else may happen today) this experience is supreme... or sublime...
...after passing through a tunnel of trees towards the Vale of Health pond i sit by the water in this first summer-warm day amidst yellow irises in bloom at the water's edge... and a moorhen diving repeatedly until it comes up with a long thing that could be a worm... and then i see a blue dragonfly approaching a willow-like tree flower...
...the lake water is still but for the ripples caused by ducks coots and a solitary swan... while the warm air is now filled with dozens of tiny fluff parachutes carrying seeds from the trees towards the water... some even rising in the slight breeze before descending to the earth's surface...
...yes this is the precedent... the present itself... the always new state to return and return to... whenever (as now) that is possible...
...no people here this evening... not yet... and i see the unusually dry ground as a sign of many layers of different substances beneath the surface.. not a cover like grass... but raw geology...
...this resolve to remain here in the present contradicts my earlier decision not to write any more of these notes until a backlog of many incomplete ones is ready and published on line... but in the presence of all this i can no more stop writing of it than stop a passing aircraft disappearing behind a small cloud for the six seconds it takes to emerge...
...two Canada Geese have been fishing with head and neck under water as the swan very smoothly moves closer (with hidden paddling below surface)...
...and now a lone kestrel flies low (for a kestrel) and the two geese squawk once or twice as they swim as fast as they can in the direction the kestrel went... (am i noting parts of the communications between animals or inventing meanings not present?)...
...while i was eating some sandwiches and a banana i looked up and saw the slow flight of a heron... its square wings flapping about once a second... unaffected it seems by the visible absence of a feather... (like a slot through 3/4 of one wing but it makes no difference to the steady flight of the heron)...
...and before that a piece of what i took to be the parachute of a seed came to rest on my clothing... but on looking closely i could see that the part i thought was a seed could be a fragile whitish insect about 2mm long and with fluff instead of wings and with long legs that seem to be feeling for something to get hold of... (or was i imagining it at the limit of vision?)
...and now i see five parakeets flying above the treetops in a group of three plus a group of two more .. the two groups flying half independently... and half together... so they must have some way to signal their changing intentions... (or do they rely on quick reactions?)...
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