Staverton Thicks April 2019


In Staverton Thicks family arguments abound. Wilf wants to walk on, throw pine cones and stones, Johnny doesn't. I want to get lost, Johnny doesn't. Wilf has gone on ahead, fuck knows where he is. The wood is tangled, the trees entwined with each other. Falling over. Sara Maitland says it's the magic wood. It's not my magic wood. I can see it has its appeal, but I've been to other places that seem more magical to me. I suppose I'd better go and look for Wilf.







Staverton is holly. Although it started badly, the walk improved. Wilf and I separated from Johnny. We went into the interior of the Thicks and climbed over fallen trees, ducked under branches and trailing ivy, holly. The trees were amazing - the old oaks of course - but what I really loved were the hollies which were proper big trees.







                                    A birch - a big one - was growing from the stump of an oak tree.






We found ourselves in a circle made of fallen and standing trees, which Wilf said he'd like to take his friends to at night to spook them. He said he'd put red lights all around. I thought I'd sit and write but it was full of flies. It had a bad feel. We didn't stay.


We went back to the path, then to Staverton Park where we met with Johnny. He wanted more time in the Thicks, so Wilf and I walked up past the Park, which is fenced off where it wasn't before, and grazed, so it is like medieval parkland rather than the sea of bracken it once was.





We walked right to the end where there is a lake with water birds, loads of daffodils - over now - but you could see how it was a couple of weeks ago. A man was mowing with a sit-on mower and I was reminded of Bethany and Dad. 

We walked back and Wilf climbed over the fence so we could recreate the photograph of him from years ago - when he was seven? eight? - by the same tree. (Look at the difference the bracken makes)


We went back into the Thicks.

This time we found a holly grove - a sacred circle, a magic circle. It was lovely, safe, full of good magic. A small animal had pooed there. Wilf carried on and I stayed and had a wee, recorded some sound. Unfortunately the only photo I got was this blurred one. Maybe it didn't want to be captured in that way.




Then we met up with Johnny again.



I did love Staverton in the end, but I needed the holly grove, I needed to get to know the holly trees.

Wilf found me a stick made of holly that was shaped like an antler and I become Herne the Hunter - on one side anyway. I have brought the stick back, and also a small flint that is blue on the inside and white on the outside.







Here are some beech monster feet - not Staverton, but nearby. 





Walking to Staverton, and back, we went through a path in the forest where birch grew on one side and pine on the other. The birches were light and full of air, the pine still and dark and smelling of resin.

 























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