It’s even more fun if you’ve been out all morning enveloped
in it and finding things you didn’t know you were searching for, as I was
today. The impressions of the day have followed me home like friendly ghosts
and urged me to write their story!
It’s quite amazing how much the fog has revealed. As we set
out on our treasure hunt the first thing I notice is the plethora of spiders’
webs, highlighted by drops of moisture and hanging like cradles from branches
and between leaves. Suddenly I am aware of this fragile world that is
everywhere, and slow my movements and watch where I plant my feet.
Up in the woods, the tap-tap-tap of moisture falling from
above is the backdrop for other sounds travelling through the obfuscation. The cry
of a tawny owl surprises us—owls in daytime always fascinate me—and the sharp cough
of a rutting deer cuts through the blanket of fog.
This place is weirdly magical, especially so today. Further
into our walk, our guide tells us that here ducks nest in trees (really, it’s
true!) and points out a pair of Egyptian geese—naturalised, but somehow out of
place. Considered sacred by the ancient Egyptians, they certainly have the air
of the orient about them. Their rich brown eye-patches remind me of overdone
kohl.
Deep into the woods, all is quiet. We’re too far from roads for any traffic noise, and I shouldn’t be surprised to see a creature as rare and retiring as the Gruffalo emerge from between the Scots pines, pause and sniff in our direction, then retreat.
The almost-bare poplars make a melancholy scene. Once grown for
match production, they now stand redundant, but so upright and regimented that
you can’t help feeling pity for their blind and naked optimism.
A last treat as we leave the woodland is the sight of a
majestic buzzard, wings outstretched, soaring then gliding through the trees.On the way back to base we pass the Fairy Lake, trees hundreds of years old (including the Tea Party Oak) and a curious set of bumps in the ground that mark the site of the village precursor to the park. It had diminished over the years before the park was established in 1700, possibly due to the various outbreaks of plague prior to this time. Now I know why I felt so many eyes on me…
The grand, Italianate house is irrelevant today…you can’t
see it through the fog anyway. Let its story be told another day.
I knew this place was supernatural but today the fog has
elevated it to a Wonderland, revealing more than it has obscured. Hardly
surprising when we’re so near to Hallowe’en, when the door to the Otherworld opens
far enough to let through what normally hides in darkness. But rest
assured, these curious beings aren’t harmful—they’re our link to another world—so
remember to give them a friendly wink or a wave next time you’re in the deep,
dark woods…
Do you
know where I was today? Clue: big park near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk!
Vintage Script supports Visit Suffolk's Curious County
campaign!