After the Serpentine Galleries we walked back through Hyde Park to the Lancaster Gate tube station, not too far from where I lived in Bayswater in the ’80s. We were stunned to see a lot of parakeets fluttering around until one of our Indian classmates explained to us that they had arrived here some years ago, escaping the homes of Indians in England who had brought them from someplace in India where they’re common.
A walk up to Caesar’s Camp a couple of weeks ago showed the many large puddles and flooding from recent rains had not yet fully receded. Glorious reflections, though. Click on the images below to see them larger.
Bohemian wax wings were spotted in Farnham for the first time in a long time. I was not out to photograph birds, but my wife was ready to spot birds with her binoculars and, seeing my camera, friendly people naturally directed me to the library garden where they could be seen.
Back to the Bishop’s Meadow and discovered that the flooding had still not fully receded. Click any picture below to see it larger.
As we walked back from Bowers Lock via a different path along the River Wey Navigation, we passed many supported, falling down trees. Click images below to enlarge them.
We walked along the River Wey Navigation which paralleled the actual River Wey for some distance. Click either of the pictures below to see them enlarged.
A few weeks ago we took the train to Guildford and then walked the Riverside Nature Reserve along the River Wey Navigation. (click any of the pictures below to see them full size.)
The concrete Dragon’s Teeth were placed here in WWII as an anti-tank defense.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
Theodore Roethke, “The Waking” from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. Copyright 1953 by Theodore Roethke. Used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Source: The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke (Doubleday, 1961)
On the 6th January we went for a walk in the Bishop’s Meadow but had to cut it short and turn back when all the paths were flooded by the recent heavy rains. Click on any of the images below to see them enlarged.
On New Year’s Day we walked to Aldershot via Caesar’s Camp. Here, a fallen tree glows green with moss.
My last post under the title Baucus and Philomen simply showed a pair of trees. In the original story the trees were and intertwined oak and linden. Here I’ve managed the intertwining but not the oak or the linden.
