Imagine you are walking on a sunny day along a path. This rises gently up a hillside. The sides of the path are hedged with white flowering hawthorns. You relish the sight of these, looking at the beauty of each of the tender blossoms. 

 

Ahead, on the hill’s crest, you can see only grassy hillocks and ditches. Strolling, you enjoy the unfolding view across the surrounding countryside.

 

Now, approaching the top of the path you see a metal gate. With a gentle push you swing it open and step onto the grassy pasture. The only sounds are from your heart and lungs as you breathe in the refreshing gentle westerly breeze. Heading towards the ridge of the hillside you walk beside rabbit burrows, fresh earth scrapped into flattened heaps.   There are lumps of unknown rock cropping through the grass.

 

Reaching the crest of the banks and ditches you look over the nearby hillsides at woods and plantations. One, in the west, looks more inviting than the rest and you walk down the sloping embankment towards it.

 

There are many different forms of tree here; tall slender trunks, deeply fluted rough bark, some sleek smooth columns like Italian marble. A mixed collection of trees, even fruit trees. Some of the trees have been pruned and coppiced, their energy contained and controlled, whilst others are untrimmed, uncut and fully express their energy in exuberant growth. Straight smooth trunks, clear of side branches, stand amongst others who have their branches arching low, almost touching the ground.

 

In amongst the trees there are signs of rabbits and squirrels, where they have chewed the bark at the bottom of trees. Pheasants and deer are here as well. You look around. Perhaps if you stay quiet for a while you will see some of the life of the woodland.

 

Amongst the trees you glimpse a bright white quartz structure. Parts appear as clear as glass. You feel drawn to walk the zig zag gully into the centre of this house of crystal. 

 

Here you find an ancient mound. And on top there stands a tall ancient tree. It is bright in the reflected light from the quartz, the leaves vibrant, the trunk strong, and the branches supple. As you gaze at the tree you feel drawn to go to it. You look down to where the trunk emerges from the soil. And around the base of the tree the earth is disturbed. What grows there?

 

You look more closely at the tree trunk. The pattern of its bark and the colour.

 

As you become familiar with the tree you gain a feeling for how it has grown, how it has fared amongst the other trees. The tree trunk carries its own character in its size and shape. The longer you are aware of the trunk the more you become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of this tree.

 

You feel so comfortable in the tree’s presence that you sit and face it. You may stay like this for some time or relax, leaning your back against the trunk, trusting in the tree’s body for sturdiness and support.

 

Slowly you become aware again of being in the mixed woodland. You are conscious of the solid ground under your feet and you walk back down the grassy hillside, through the metal gate and into the world.