The Chase

Our Walk through Cranborne Chase today, looked like this. From the top: through Stonedown Wood up on to the Ox Drove, across Woodminton Down and into the Ebble Valley, up Marlycombe Hill, through West Woodyates, With Penbury Hill on the horizon, and wispy clouds above. Eight miles of pure loveliness; we would've gone further, though even when we arrived at 08.00 it was hot and I knew it would become too hot for Geoff, and so I clipped here and there, taking some shorter or more direct routes; it was a good move too, as by mid morning it was scorching and all our water had already gone. Fabulous walking though, and again, few folk about, other than we walked through farms or hamlets.

First Ramson flower bud

Hail and welcome, the first Ramson flower bud I've seen this year, and I've walked through acres of Ramsons over the last couple of weeks. I can't wait until the woodlands are pungent with their blossoms. Tis a joyous time, one of the year's highlights.

Perfect isolation

I really needed our walk this morning. I really needed to escape the growing pressure of our developing reality if only momentarily. And what better place to blow away my cobweb of worries than the Chase with it's wind swept hills, peaceful pockets of woodland and tree line trackways. I'd spent far too long on the internet yesterday, saturated in the Covid crisis, worrying about it's potential and fuming at the failure of our government to deliver anything close to cogent advice in the face of the looming storm. If I'm honest I was overwhelmed and had a bit of a meltdown. My wife's one of those on the most vulnerable list, with several co-morbidities and immuno-compromised, her risk is so high. I'm hearing all sorts of initiatives and strategies to support OAP's, and that's good, man, as half arsed as those plans are, I want everybody to be cared for through this crisis. But as a carer in the situation we're in, there appears no battle plan for people like us, it feels as if we, and thousands like us are being left out of the equation. Too complicated, maybe. We're being left to fend for ourselves, with no real credible advice. That's one thing for me, I'm a sort of survivalist come prepper mentalist, I roll with a degree of contingency already baked in, but for others it must be truly terrifying and isolating, as, man, I’m relatively terrified. Don't be taken in, and I'm sure you're not, our government (and if you're in the States, your Government) is failing huge swathes of society, not just people in our situation, their whole strategy lacks nuance, it lacks....., it just lacks. Excuse me going on, this is somewhat of a cathartic exercise. Anyway, I found myself a spot beneath a tree and settled in. It didn't take long for the world of, and sounds of, man to dissolve, replaced by the sounds of nature, early insects, unseen rustling and eager birds creating the soundtrack to my meditation. I took three breaths, sky above, earth below and waters flowing around, you know the routine, I chanted the Awen... as it resonated through and around me, the weight lifted and I found calm descending. I could remained in that calm for who knows how long, like the embrace of a lover, I didn't want to emerge from it....I found myself in perfect isolation, safe in natures and my Goddesses embrace...and all the better for it. Wonderful.

Chase

It dawned on me that we'd not been out to the Chase in a while, very remiss I thought. So this morning we took off inland for the chalk hills and rolling arable farmland of the Dorset/Wiltshire border, and the heart of Cranborne Chase AONB. There was no one about as we made our way through the traditionally managed  coppice of Garston Wood, which over the years I've watched rise and fall through the coppice cycle. On along the fringe of Mistleberry Wood with its ancient earthworks, recently they've been managing the woodland through here too, cutting and clearing the woodland fringe and in so opening the boundary path right up. Then through the Forestry Commission mosaic woodland of  Stonedown Wood, before arriving atop the high chalk ridge and the Ox Drove. The views from the Ox Drove are expansive, you can see into 4 counties on a good day, and today was a good day. As we walked along the Ox Drove I soaked up as much of the scenery as I could, below the Ebble Valley revealed itself, with new sights continually coming into view as others disappeared behind pockets of woodland or were obscured by the undulous landscape. Lovely walking the high road, though it wasn't long before we took another track and disappeared back down into Stonedown Wood and our return journey. A majestic landscape, for sure.

Chase

The quiet of the woods was broken by a carrion bird and a bird of prey engaged in aerial combat above Stonedown Wood this morning, noisily the pair circled and swooped. The carrion was the aggressor, or was at least dominating the interaction, with the bird of prey unable to shake off its pursuer. The carrions dogged persistence made me think the bird of prey had encroached into the formers territory, and was being shown short shrift. In the end I lost sight of them, though I could still hear their cries disappearing into the distance.

Light wave

Today bands of cloud scud across the sky driven by blustery winds, below them the light came in waves across the Chase as they passed, flooding Stonedown Wood with warm luminosity before ebbing away again, leaving the stands drained and quite flat by comparison. Still, lovely walking though.