Sunday, May 24

For the last couple of days I have explored the woods when I go walking. Usually I walk along the main path but recently I decided to turn along every little path that branches out from it, with some surprising results.

Firstly the woods contain much more than is apparent from the main path. I have walked up hills and over rocks, I have seen war-time relics that I had never noticed before, and I have met several couple with dogs several times on the same walk as they turn left and I turn right and we meet again the other side of a thicket where they turn right and I turn left.

Today I went through a thicket to find a flat grass clearing, surrounded by thick bushes. There at one end stood a teepee about two and a half or three metres tall. I walked down to it and saw that I could step inside without crouching, and that the inside could hold three or four people, sitting and talking.

I stood there, genuinely surprised, and then made my way through some bushes and walked until I found a little path that eventually joined a larger one which led, in turn, to one of the surrounding roads.