Forest Walks

4.45am Sitting in the front seat, waiting for the sunrise, which is due in twenty minutes. It's already light. I set the alarm for 3.45am and even then there was light in the sky. I just walked up through the Hayes, through the dawn chorus, between trees where darkness was hanging on in shreds and pools. Up here on the hill the darkness is gone, the fields below have that summer predawn just woken look, no mist but a feeling of mist. The sky is pink, breaking out into gold above the place the sun is going to burst through. I think this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. In the woods they've put something on the main path, maybe sand, which makes it where. A shining white road through the woods. I didn't like it much. 5.10am Better than I could have imagined. In this world of muted greens and whites, the sun has risen bright orange and red, hugely colourful, completely stunning, I am overawed. I want to tell everyone, show every...

1.45pm Arrived at Bethany around midday. The house is cold and dark. I am sad, this is a sad thing to do. Now I'm in the Hayes and I don't really feel like it. My stomach aches, which could be the strange food I've been eating the past few days, or moving about too soon after eating, or trout pate that hadn't been kept in the fridge. I hope not the latter. Also, my feet aren't happy. Because I've been travelling around the country the past few days I didn't bring my wellies. Instead I have my walking shoes - the ones I walked over five hundred miles in - but I want my wellies - it's muddy, slimy underfoot, grass is wet - and I don't feel intrepid, I feel like I'm trying to keep my feet dry. It's not the same. We'll see how this afternoon goes. I'm coming back in the morning. So I could do two or three hours now, then more in the morning. I feel like I should stay for sunset, or return for sunset, but I might leave that for ...

6.03am Only half an hour until sunrise. It's raining. Just walked through the woods in the nearly dark, rain between trees, atmospheric. Definitely a different sound to last time. More birds. Sitting outside the visitors centre at the table bench with a roof, out of the rain. I can't stay here all day though. I think the rain's pretty much set in for the day. I guess I'll just have to see how wet I get' I have my torch on to write this. I'm in a torch bubble. Disconnect from the world. Noisy under the roof. 6.40am Light enough to write without a torch now. Still raining and I'm quite wet. Really feeling of being the only person about this morning. Birds are loud. I had a wee at the top pf Oldbury Hills looking out at the view. Then I walked over to St Lawrence's Wood and back. Dawn has happened, but too too cloudy for anything dramatic. I though about going back to Bethany, to wait for the rain to stop, but I'm going to try ...