Hartshill Hayes 10 March 2018

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 sitting here reading for a bit. Hope I don't get too cold.




There's a patch of memorial woodland by St Lawrence's Wood, and a board to say who the trees have been planted for. I may get some ideas for characters.

It's kind of beautiful this morning, and not cold, though being wet makes you feel colder. Walking isn't cold, but sitting is a bit. Not a single dog walker yet. There's a smell of wet ground, wet woodland, damp air, rain - it's very familiar, and actually quite lovely. I am going to eat some chocolate bread.

7.50am
Rain has stopped. Woods after rain. Still puddles, breezes causing sudden showers from overhead trees, damp air, something ineffably comforting, peaceful, smell of wet leaves, wet earth.

Constant patter in the air at the trees settle and water finds its level. I'm near a stream so there's running water.

So still. Not cold. The birds all having a good old sing, fluffing their feathers. Seen a few squirrels, not a single person.  I've been looking at the roots of a fallen tree.

I'm liking these woods today. Feels like I own them. I'm near that big oak gall which I didn't like at first, but now on my third visit, it's becoming familiar like an old friend.

Loving the sound of water everywhere.

8.10am
Walked along a little path I haven't walked before, through arches made by fallen trees. I realised what I felt was joy, the feeling of being a child, of delicious enjoyment. So glad to be here on a March morning after rain.

A lovely thing about the path - it started across a patch where bluebell shoots are coming, and it was only visible because of the gap that they left. I took a photo, but it won't capture the feeling of my boots stepping onto the tiny path, through a meadow of new green shoots. I felt like a child and also a giant. Lovely today. So glad I came.





9.10am
Outside the Stag and Pheasant. Just been for a walk along the fields by Cherry Tree Farm, the canal, then Apple Pie Lane. Such a good name. And a lovely road, lovely cottages, shame DeMulders is right there.

This really does feel like memory lane. Memories of exploring as a child, on foot, and also the mystery tours with Dad, where we ended up driving all over. Also when Johnny and I lived here, and the man we met in the pub who lived on a canal boat, with a wife who hid at the back when we came round after hours, who let him fuck her on his birthday, but he left her alone the rest of the time as she'd been raped and was traumatised. What a weird place this is.

I'm enjoying going wherever I want. I'm heading somewhere, then a different path calls be and I go that way instead, coming back to the original path when I'm ready. But annoyingly, when I wrote in the woods near the oak gall, I sat on a bench, and I sat on a sandwich bag to keep my bum dry, and I think I left it there. Annoying not to have the bag, even more annoying that I've left litter in the woods. I'll head back that way and see if I can find it. It's quite warm now, and dry, but due to start raining again later.





10.02am
Back at the visitor's centre. I'm hoping they'll open so I can get a cup of tea. It's not meant to rain again until 1pm, but I think it's in the air. I thought I'd stay out until the rain starts again, but it's still early. I've been in the woods for four and half hours - well, the woods and the fields, canal etc. I want to talk to dogs. That's kind of where I am. There are people about now, and dogs, and I want to make friends with the dogs, particularly the collies - I've seen two. But the thing is, I suspect Mike the ranger might be in his office - people are gathering - maybe a volunteer party - so I could go and say hello, but I don't fancy that. I do fancy a cup of tea, Maybe they'll open the kiosk in a minute. I'm actually quite tired today, I don't think it's going to be a seventeen mile day today. I went back to the bench by the tree the a gall - pretty much straight there, though by a different route, which is interesting, seems like my brain has a map of the woods in it. I knew it was by a stream, but there are more streams than one, and I had to find the right part of the wood.

When I got there the sandwich bag was gone. Hopefully another walker picked it up, probably tutting with annoyance, and rightly so. The alternative is that it's blown away into the woods, and that is not so good. I hope that's not what happened. It's a lesson to be more careful in future. It doesn't look like the kiosk is going to open. Just checked the website and it opens at eleven. So I could come back, or not, we'll see. I'm not fancying more rain, but who knows if the weather follows the BBC. There are loads of bluebells, masses, all over the wood. It's going to be brilliant. Next month maybe, definitely May - bluebells everywhere. The volunteers are nearly ready to go. I'm going for a circuit of the wood, maybe come back for tea in an hour.





11.25am
I have a cup of tea. I wondered about asking for it in a mug, as there were some on the sink and I would have brought it back, but I didn't. So it's in a paper cup. Maybe next time I could bring my own mug. Anyway, quite a bit to say. I left my gloves behind on the bench and came back for them, and met Mike the ranger with his volunteers - only four or five of them. They were all pretty impressed that I'd been here since 5.30am. They were going coppicing. Said it was the last time as everything is starting to change and bud for spring, so they'l have to leave it be. They've been working to clear the pond too, but now the frogs are beginning to be active, so they'll have to leave that too. When I was in The Woodlands I saw a squashed frog on the road - enormous - all its innards spread across the road. Anyway, we spoke briefly, then went our separate ways. There's something about these woods - all woods maybe, but particularly these for me - the sound, the breeze in the top branches, the birds, the sounds of traffic not far away, then something about the trees and the spaces beneath them, the colour and the sinuousness of the coppice stools, lime stands, the larches and other conifers, tall, straight, holding the air between them, the breeze and the paths winding between.

It's just peaceful, perfect. The wood pigeon. Always the wood pidgeon. The way the air holds sounds - children in the playground, a chainsaw - like they're wrapped and separate - over there. They don't intrude on the peace, they are next to it.




I did a bit of running away from people on my circuit, as I was trying to record sound and didn't want to interrupt it with conversation. I tried to go round the edge of the wood, but got pulled back onto the winding paths, even the same one as before, through the bluebells. I went to the cemetery and visited Mum and Dad- maybe I'll come back tomorrow with something from Bethany to put on the grave. I'm quite tired today, but this break may revive me. Food, tea, rest. I don't think I've finished yet, there's more walking to be done. But not for long. I'm not staying out in the rain if that's what's coming.





1.03pm
Back at the gall bench, which is now dry enough to sit on. Rain has been pushed back to 3pm. I'm really tired but kind of don't want to give up, so I'm meandering aimlessly, looking at things and taking photos.

Found a house of wood and took a video of that. I would have loved that so much when I was a a child. It would have been The Best Thing Ever.

Went for a walk around St Lawrence's Wood, seeing as the last time I tried to do that I got distracted, pulled by the path to Purley Chase. I quite like that idea - a path as enticement, you can't quite resist it, even though it's not the path you planned to walk on. I really need to sit on a comfortable seat with a cup of tea and a book. Don't know why I am so tired today. Am I fighting off a cold? Whatever, I think this day of woodland is nearly done. I'm going to sit here for a while, then wander around a bit more, then back to Bethany.