Today the skies unexpectedly opened up late in the afternoon and the sun shone for hours and hours. Many wonderful things resulted, not least of all the return of my evening stroll through the forest. A lot goes on here at the farm but let me just tell you, this post dinner ritual has become the true highlight of my days here.
The journey begins near the horse pastures and then past the lake, next by another farmer's sheep, and then to a dirt pathway that branches off towards numerous options for where to go next. The very best path thus far is the one that takes me to the "other forest". There seem to be an endless number of trails through the trees upon arrival; some marked and beaten down, others less so.
I have made many otherwise inconsequential discoveries out there: a hedge hog moseying by, a gigantic black slug, an alternate pathway leading to a fish farm or pheasant cage (it's all very mysterious), one lone poppy growing in the wild...
It feels as though I am truly and completely alone out there in a way I'm not used to (or taking for granted) after ten plus years of living in the city. It's just me and the breeze (and the snails, and the frogs, and the birds, and the bugs...)
...Nary a care in the world.
