Green Leaves And Stillness
walking in the woods of Buxton
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| Grinlow Woods, summer 2020 |
I don’t walk in these woods as often as I would like…or even as often as I intend to. There is that moment when something calls me back to a screen just as I was getting ready to go. Or when I get to my “run away to the woods” bit in the diary and the clouds fall out of the sky*. Again.
But I do get here. It’s only 10 minutes up the hill, and another 10 into the woods and a stone, a bench, a tree root to sit on.
And yes, I will plug my headphones in, and even plug them into my ears as well. Doesn’t mean I am disconnected (thank you, judgemental dogwalker).
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| Grinlow Woods, November 2021 |
Now,
- notes are leaves or tree trunks or flowers, or pebbles or ripples on a stream’s pool.
- chords are movement, or distance, a moment seen through the trees
- songs unwrap landscapes, or maybe wrap me into a landscape
- lyrics often don’t matter much, maybe the emotion is more important. It pushes
And silence is an echo, the pause between tracks, a breath between verses. A fading note will do it, too. Everything stops.
These woods open me, draw me out, take me in.
A chance to observe.
To feel.
To experience.
No analysis needed. No cataloguing of bird, birdsong, flowers, trees, fungi.
Just being.
O, with a note book
Grinlow Woods are managed by the Buxton Civic Association and are one of the treasures of our town! The BCA's Stronger Roots project is working on the management of the woods and inviting greater, wider and inventive access to the woods
