Sunday Morning Walk

I chose a different walk this morning, across the fields and far away from civilisation.
It started out by a village hall which seemed extremely busy with folk, dressed up in colourful robes, smart suits and singing what sounded like Gospel music.
What caught my attention more than anything though was the bouncy castle which was outside the back door, I used to love these as a kid and for a moment I forgot my age, it was only the thought of getting arrested that stopped me taking my footwear off and going for a bounce. :joy:

I wandered off down the path that led into the fields and was met with a magical stillness, no wind, no noise and not much happening accept for 2 Bee’s, 1 butterfly and a pigeon sat on a dead branch of an isolated tree.

These are conditions I am thankful for in the meditating kind of way, you don’t need to focus on reaching a meditating state, it’s all done for you.

I’m not one for following paths so I went off peak, the main path is not easy to see as it’s all extremely overgrown, but you can see it slightly if you focus, as its walked quite often in the winter months, the Summer months it’s not walked as grass, stinging nettles, teasel, giant hogweed etc., grow as high as your head.
I noticed trails off this path where foxes, badgers, deer had pushed the grass down to gain access to the stream, only after following these did I find the stream, and a species of 8ft high grass that I had never seen in the UK before, it was in a circular ring formation about 2 meters wide, with stems 30mm wide and extremely strong.

This is where I noticed a bramble bush which had totally engulfed a small tree over the stream, from inside the bush I could hear a serious amount of birds, I sat down about 30 footsteps away and listened to what sounded like a serious discussion, I could pick out one bird which had the loudest and deepest voice, the more noise the others made (and at a guess I would calculate at least 50) this one bird would squawk louder and they would go quiet temporarily.
I decided to move further away and watch from a distance, after a while 2 magpies flew out of the brambles and landed in the long grass, followed by around 100 starlings which took to the air and started flying in a murmuration.

As I walked back to where I had started out, the pigeon was still sat on the old dead branch, it hadn’t moved, this got me thinking about the Buddha and how he contemplated on spreading his message after coming through his own suffering and finding enlightenment.
I wondered how long he contemplated for, before approaching the first people.

I’d like to say that was the end of my walk, but as I got closer to the building where all these people were, I could hear this chap shouting some kind of preaching to the congregation, I’m not talking like a nice shouting either, it was more like a telling off, and the people (around 30 of them) were dead quiet.

My mind went straight back to the Magpies in that bush!

The pigeon is the star of my Sunday morning walk though!

:dove:

https://youtu.be/X0sE10zUYyY?si=68df-QkzP1dRWt1h

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I Should Of Wrote This Yesterday

The grass I found last Sunday turned out to be ‘Canary Grass’ (Bird Seed)
Canary grass - Wikipedia

I’m now partially convinced the meeting between the Magpies and the Starlings in the Brambles, was in fact about me getting to close to their prized food possession.
The small murmuration afterwards from the Starlings, was to scare me away.

On the other hand it’s also possible I’m losing the plot! :joy:

Yesterday I headed back to the woods for my walk, according to the internet the woods are 272.65 acres or 110.34 ha, this is set within 3000 acres of deer park, which consist of grass fields owned by the 15th Duke and his family, where as the woods is now owned by The Woodland Trust.

And though some people might find this an interesting fact, the woods and deer park have been there for thousands of years, and will be there for thousands of more years, so saying who owns it makes no sense to me whatsoever.

Anyway, on my walk yesterday in the woods (which was quite uneventful), I noticed some large tire tracks down by an old stagnant pond, I could hear the sound of falling trees and realised it was the lumberjacks at work.

Periodically and intentionally, I will wander off main paths and take myself down animal tracks purposely to get lost.
For me it is a kind of meditation which can give me a kick start when needed.
I hadn’t planned to do this yesterday though, and it was only the fact of the machinery and wood butchery that I didn’t want to see, was my reason for going off peak.

I had a rough idea of where I was going when I started along the path, but after around one mile I became totally lost.
The animal tracks are not very clear, they also form crossroads through high Ferns/Brambles and other long overgrowth.

So I stood for 10 minutes doing a 360 degree turn, only to find myself looking at dense trees that all looked the same.
As I hadn’t planned intentionally to get lost yesterday, I found myself faced with 2 choices.

1: Try and find the way back in which I had come
2: Panic

As I stood there contemplating, I knew going back was not an option, I’d taken to many turns at various crossroads.

Panic, seemed like a good idea, after all it would be dark soon, and nobody knew where I was.

And this is where meditation can help me when put in a challenging position.
Standing still and just taking in the surroundings, not physically going anywhere, just becoming unlost in my mind.

When I did start walking again, after a while I found myself back to where I’d contemplated my two choices, I’d done a circle.
When I did eventually stumble across a clearing, I recognised it immediately as there is an old gate, yet everything looked different, and I stood there momentarily still feeling lost. My mind didn’t seem to catch up with my physical self of where it was.
It’s the first time of experiencing that in the daytime, it was like an unexplained time shift.
One I recognised when young, I used to honestly think my bed was a time machine…

Go to sleep at 9pm, wake up at 6am and be amazed 9 hours had passed in what felt like seconds being asleep.

Anyway, that was yesterdays adventure.

Today I strolled the fields again, I hadn’t paid to much attention to what I saw 10 days ago, I’d noticed some blackberries ripening, today they’re are thousands ripening.
I’ve never seen this happen so early, it’s normally September, I wonder if we are heading for a cold Winter, the birds love Blackberries.
I say that based on consciousness, I’ve been studying to whether plants/tress/bushes etc. are in fact conscious, and I’m starting to come to the conclusion they are. The fact they breath in what we breath out kind of carries a lot of weight to how everything is connected, it’s just nature can’t speak a language we can understand, but it does speak a language that is felt.
And I guess that’s as good as words, words can make you feel all sorts of emotions, nature just doesn’t need to learn the words, but it always leaves me feeling quite fulfilled!

How many trees does it take to produce oxygen for one person? - BBC Science Focus Magazine

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Thanks so much for these reflections.

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Thanks for allowing me to post them! :dove:

The Blackberries are ready now in the UK.
I have a tendency to ramble on so I’ll try and keep this short.

Blackberries are classed as a superfood, (I’m not on about shop purchased ones, these are more than likely sprayed with chemicals to keep them looking perfect)
I’m on about the ones you’ll find on any bramble bush by a park/church/country lane/field/woodland etc.

Wild Blackberries, untouched and in abundance.

When picking these you will notice the ripe ones just fall away, they are offering themselves, I watch these every year and thousands upon thousands end up rotting away on the brambles.
Charlie Chaplin was right when he said, ‘The good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.’

6 Blackberry Health Benefits You Can’t Ignore (healthline.com)

Rubus - Wikipedia

:dove:

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I’ve been out already last weekend picking these here (in Ireland). :slight_smile: Still some weeks more of these to go, I’d say (many still red or yet to come out). I usually pick a few bags of these for the freezer to put in my porridge and yoghurt for the next 12 months.

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I agree, they’re still flowering in certain places, I think they’ll be around until at least October. Just in time for the Sweet chestnuts falling! :melting_face:

What amazes me is one bramble bush can be different to another, and at different stages. Sometimes only meters/yards away from other Brambles.
A small village near here was ready to pick in early August, these are still going strong but starting to die off in areas. I had never seen them so early before.

The churchyard not far away is just coming into it’s own, and the woods this morning was all over the place. One bramble bush was only just starting to produce flowers, it is located down in a pocket and the temperature is always warmer there, even when the frosts come it doesn’t affect them.

I came across some Rhubarb this morning, so I’m going to make a Rhubarb and Blackcurrant crumble.
The sweetness of the berries should counteract the Rhubarb, hence no need for any sugar. :smiley:

:dove:

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I walked Ivinghoe Beacon today, it’s a prominent hill that’s 233 m (757 ft) above sea level.
It’s an ancient signal point with burial grounds where human remains found there dated back to the Stone Age.
It’s the beginning of an old ancient path, Icknield Way to the East and The Ridgeway to the West.
From the top and facing North you can see Grim’s ditch below you, it’s only about 300 meters/yards away.
Ivinghoe Beacon - Wikipedia
Funnily enough nothing grows at the bottom of Grim’s ditch, trees and shrubs grow along the sides, but the base is clear, and it is always dry, even when heavy rain has fallen.
My next walk will be along the bottom of the ditch to try and understand why nothing grows there.
One thing I have noticed after standing directly inline with Grim’s ditch, is a constant strong wind which appears to blow directly along the line of the ditch, this was my umpteenth visit to the area today and the same thing happened before every time. It’s taken me this long to actually clock it lol.
Whether this wind has something to do with things not growing at the bottom, I’ll investigate next time.
Grim’s Ditch - Wikipedia

Trees are starting to lose their leaves now, the giant Hogwarts and grasses are starting to die off. The brambles are still offering thousands of Blackberries though.
Yesterday I spotted 6 chestnuts on the floor that had fell from the tree, this is early like the Blackberries in early August, I’ve never seen sweet chestnuts on the floor before October.

Acorns are also falling in abundance and the squirrels are fighting over them. I picked up 6 and have planted them in a tray.

I think the squirrels know what I’m up too, there has been two sitting on the fence for the past week, and I’ve never seen squirrels around the garden ever!

Squirrels are extremely clever, though they’re also mischievous!
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:dove: