under another sun

A sleeper in the woods A beautiful spring day today. Lorraine drove us to Woods Mill, a nearby piece of wet woodland that is used as a nature trail for school kids in Sussex. Great to be out and about. The sun very warm. At one point I just sat on a bench with Lorraine and we did the sound meditation, which always works very well for me. What you do is simply listen to the nearest noise and then the ones further away until you are at your aural horizon. If you are sitting among singing birds this an added pleasure. It is a very fast way to take your consciousness away from yourself and gets you centred quickly. I've been yearning for the spring this year. And there was evidence of it everywhere today: daffodils, primroses, late snowdrops, and a few shy wood anemones. Also catkins on trees. We stumbled across a pair of mating toads too, and peered into the twitching ponds. I love this kind of thing, and so does Lorraine. There are also ruins there, which are unmarked and are just ly...

A fragrant afternoon An idyllic few hours spent at Leonardslee lakes and gardens this afternoon. There was an enormous amount to see there. On the edge of the Sussex high weald, much tramped by Anton and myself, is this fragrant valley full of what Lorraine informed me were rhododendron and azalea species of all kinds and colours. Their sweet fragrance hung everywhere in the truly beautiful little valley. Lots of trees too, and geese and goslings wandering about, and koi carp and goldfish, and a pheasant, not to mention a couple of dozen wallabies lolling sleepily in their enclosure, and other fish in the ponds. Simply a very beautiful place. Lorraine happily going about knowing the names of plants, fondling leaves, and rubbing tree bark and doing various Taurean things. Also there was a small exhibit of vintage cars, but perhaps surprisingly what was considerably more interesting was a Beyond the Doll's House which was a miniature market town of great and witty detail. Home and ...