My Pocket

And so I travel...

I found a book on the British poet Edward Thomas in the library and these words spoke to me. He was depressed and found that really the only thing that uplifted him was taking walks in the countryside. He was a restless soul too and moved around a lot, but for some years he lived close to where we live now and went walking close to where I go on my wanderings. I too find myself most at peace when walking and somehow it's touching to know somebody similar to yourself walked where you walk and thought like you think, but a hundred years ago.

I don't know how I will ever be able to move away from here. These wooded lanes are home to me, I never grow tired of the view. It's like walking in a green tunnel, protected at all sides by leaves, branches and trunks. It's silent apart from the occasional acorn falling, a squirrel streaming from branch to branch, the buzzard and her children calling in the sky and mice scurrying off under the leaves. The rhythm of my feet, the play of sunshine on the lane and the breeze above take me into a place where life is just right.

crop, crop

This post will take a bit of scrolling methinks! All photos are of the area around Brockwood where I walk, all of places and trees I love. I don't know what you think, but cropped like this the photos become a whole new experience for me, it's almost like I'm in them watching it all. See what you find!

Hey - you made it to the end! Thanks for dropping by, all of you, I really appreciate it. :)

sunflowers

Hello you! Life is sweet for the moment, but fast. Wrapping things up at work, sewing the last of the 25 curtains (phew!), getting the library into reasonably fit shape before I go (after a year I still haven't got used to the idea that I'm a, well part-time, librarian. Never saw that one coming), fitting in as much homework as I can (lying in bed in the evening with laptop on my tummy reading about asthma...), writing on those assignments and enjoying good walks (the more I have to do the more I need to take time for that). I like being busy and having less time to think and worry about stuff, just get on with it. I just need something to work towards, I'm definitely a deadline person.

I've been experimenting a bit with cropping my photos, I'll show you more tomorrow. I'm still loving my camera, but I got into a bit of a rut lately and had to come up with a different angle or project. I wanted to get my landscape pictures to come out differently, it seemed none of them were done justice by the camera so here's my first attempt:

nearly to Old Winchester Hill

I like this little bird-like piece of wood I found on a walk the other day. Not sure what to do with it yet so it just follows me around in my bag for the moment.

I just came back from a long walk now. I think I'm the happiest when I walk, or at least the most at peace. I am exactly where I want to be, moving along. When the sun shines and the breeze is warm it's bliss. This time I went along the Green lane, as we call it, it's just a track through the fields and woods but it's flanked by trees all the way. That's the path I usually go around every weekday after lunch. I took the path down towards Warnford and shot this picture of the horse paddock before I was too deep into the woods.

Ahem. Should have taken me wellies... We had a little accident slipping into a puddle.

The path was so muddy it took me twice as long to walk, having to navigate across the puddles to either this side of the track or that, but I must say the mud makes the most delightful squelchy sounds under one's feet. I'm well aware how lucky we are here though, with hardly any flooding at all compared to some parts of Britain. Even I grew tired of the puddles in the end so I began walking the edge of the field instead, I loved the view.

In Warnford I cooled my feet in the stream - so clear! My toes didn't look exactly the way I remembered them though. Afterwards I walked around on the grass for a while, I've hardly walked barefoot at all this summer.

They grow watercress in waterfilled pools along the edge of the park. I should eat more of the stuff, seeing how local it is.

I always stop on the little bridge where this photo was taken from, I like watching the water flowing and whirling.

Mostly I veer off homewards by now, taking the old railway line track towards West Meon, but today I decided to go further, up and up and up the hill. I never know how long a walk will be when I leave home, I just decide each time I reach a fork in the road.

The view from the road up towards Old Winchester Hill is stunning, this picture doesn't do it justice. I'll have to take you there sometime to see it for yourself. You can see so far and wide, all the hills, trees and fields.

I stopped and had a little rest at the top, leaning against a gate and watching the view and the sheep. The sun sifting through the leaves of the trees. I could have walked on to Old Winchester Hill now, but I felt like going home. My camera ran out of battery here so I'll have to show you a picture of the Hill some other time. It has remains of an ancient settlement on it and what you can see is a mound going all the way around the top of the hill.

Oh, it was nice going downhill after that! Even better, I found the first ripe blackberries and had a handful. That was my walk, took about four hours I think. Wish you could tell me where you go walking and what you see! Do you like walking?

field of blue

We passed a blue field on our walk yesterday. Honest!

See?

Borage in English : Gurkört in Swedish.

to Overview Place and Back

walk - breeze - warm - sunshine - clouds - deep blue - swifts - damsons - hazelnuts - beech leaves - smoke wafting from a fire - smell good memories - small path - dappled light - blackberry blossoms - skylark - mud on path - peaceful woods - ivy - lone oak - narrow hedgerow path - opening up - fields beyond and beyond - clouds moving quickly - poppies - pigeons on telephone wire - downward curve of path - barley field - cross the road - horses - swifts swooping - bluebell wood - shady trunks - road again - walking - breeze - warm - sunshine

I am not I

I am not I.
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And at other times I forget.
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
The one who will remain standing when I die.

Juan Ramon Jimenez, translated by Robert Bly

I found this poem, in Spanish, when I lived in Barcelona for a few months and it stayed with me. It was in Barcelona that I really made walking a habit. I had just come back from my trip in India a month earlier, and in India the last place I had been was Rishikesh, staying at an ashram. At the ashram I met a Finnish girl, Heidi (miss you Heidi!), who went for walks in the surrounding hills every day and she showed me the paths she took. When she left the ashram to go further up into the Himalayan foothills I continued walking those paths alone every morning before lunch and I felt so happy. It was one of the happiest times in my life.

I did an hour and a half of yoga asanas each morning at 7.00 am and again each afternoon at 3.00 pm. I made a habit of avoiding the meditation classes at 5.30 am and 5.00 pm - I wasn't ready for meditation in my life and in any case, I still don't like that kind of dark room mass meditation with a technique to apply for the one hour on the dot. I stayed up on one of the roof tops instead, lying on my back watching the stars come out and listening to the pooja taking place on the other side of the Ganges. The walking was my kind of meditation and it did wonders to my peace and clarity of mind.

However, when I came to Barcelona I had forgotten about walking and was first quite miserable in the early evenings after work as I am a rather boring introvert girl when it comes to socialising and coming up with exciting things to do. I just prefer observing and living a life of simple pleasures. Walking is just that for me. It took a while to get into the habit however - I was so tired and dull-minded coming back from work that it took a lot of coaxing and encouraging just to get out of the house and on the way. Listening to music helped immensely with that, skipping down the winding streets to the seafront. I would always go the same way: down the hill through the residential area I lived in, past all these lovely Spanish houses with lush front gardens with lemon trees, jasmine, manicured pot plants and little patios. I loved the warmth and exotic smells, ocean air in the breeze, Spanish snippets of conversation as people were out and about, glimpsing some Mediterranean blue at the bottom of the hill and feeling the warm road under my feet.

There was an esplanade running the length of the beach and I would walk to the end of that strip, turn around and walk back. All this would take me about 45 minutes or an hour and it was bliss. Watching people enjoying the beach, breathing in the fresh air and walking quickly. That made me happy.

quiet life

Things are quiet here. The students have been away on the yearly camp in Devon this week so the school has been empty. Tomorrow back to normal though. We've been rearranging the two rooms in our little flat to suit us better and had a lot of laughs in the process. I'll show you pictures of the new arrangement once we've cleared away all the bits and pieces that always remain spread across the floor after these kind of endeavours. We've been going for walks in the evenings after work these days instead of our usual lunch-time one. It's wonderful - I love summer evenings! Bright, lush green and sultry.

I wish you all peaceful summer days ahead - be well.

champagne tents and phone booths

I hope you had a pleasant Saturday. We needed to go off and do something other than what we usually do and so we went to a place called the Grange not too far from here. It's a grand old (17th century) building with Greek pillars and all but you won't get a good look at it because I generally find buildings boring and this one especially, so no photos. Besides, there were far more interesting things surrounding it. Tonight there is an opera performance so all over the grounds were party tents for groups of five to sip champagne in the interval.

Beyond the immaculate lawns a phone booth was standing in the barley - the British are funny like that.

After the Grange we went to Abbotstone Down, a wood with footpaths and open meadows, where we had lunch in the grass.

The best part of the day was getting here and there though - riding on the back of D's vespa. I love zipping along the lanes and watching the fields and woods fly by, feeling the warm breeze and the movement.

poppy

Have you ever been inside a poppy?