Two walks today. An early on a mission to procure a velvet shank, to take a spore print, excited to see if it will yield the white pattern that will be the final test to identify it as one of this kind. I enter the Glen my usual way, between the young birch and its darker barked berry bearing (yet to be identified) compadre, passing the pond on the northern edge I see an oily galaxy on its surface and worry about its presence here.
It’s damp and rainy as I head up along the upper football pitch and exit the main park to the laneway. There have been winter clear outs from the local homes and garden debris intermingles with Glen borders. The fly tipping is also revealed by the winter paring. The trees reach all about and the dead elms are the place where the velvet shanks are to be found.
I rush back from my early foray which as usual is longer than anticipated and I am distracted by some new daffodil shoots coming up and on the bark of a tree a perfect oval of lichen and a pair of un-identical twin spots.
I notice some activity on the stump of the oak that was felled last summer. There is a wedge shaped stone on its table top, approaching it more closely I see a nail and a screw have been roughly inserted, I am given to thinking it may have served as a bench top, or even some kind of an alter…the face has darkened, perhaps with the rain, and there is a distinct corona marked out with white splotches, like numerals on a clock face
Returning in late morning for my meeting with L, as usual this is a walk and talk and so my camera stays in my pocket. We catch up, swapping encounters and pursuits of the last week. My talk is filled with vocal soundings from the Healing voice workshop and I showed L the improvement of skin condition on my excematic finger, and demonstrated the vowel sounds and sang her green Tara mantra.