Day 2. Tetbury to Little Sodbury.
Each rubbing caries a story. Rubbing of a Highgrove Yew hanging over the wall talks of shared values despite class, privilege, power and responsibility. We revist and collectively rub Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides remembering our “Aboreality” project here at Westonbirt Arboretum about endangered trees and the follow-up digital exchange with Jian Lu in Shanghai. We rub dead trees, tree rings, timber trees and telegraph poles thinking of other values of trees and the temporariness of these huge, woody plants.
We get lost in the rain at one point and stray too far into Wiltshire – at this point the regular tree rubbing is comforting and gives us back some control over our predicament.
A foot note to the day is that in our B&B overlooking the Little Sodbury Hill Fort, we watch “Spring Watch” on TV only to turn off the invasive chatter and instead, on looking out of the window next to the TV see a Hare sitting on the outer bank of the Hill Fort, silhouetted against the darkening sky. As happens a lot on this walk, the sense of what is real is to me is heightened.
In terms of aesthetics, I wonder whether beauty is in the eye of the beholder or more about a process of being aware of my relationship with nature.
