online: 9 september 2011 modified: 8 9 september 2011 8 september 2011 evening light and darkness
playing fields
...i arrive just in time to see about 100 small birds flying low over the grass and disappearing over the surrounding trees...
...no one is playing cricket here this evening... is it already too cold?...
...i sit in the cool wind as if waiting for miracles... having been led here by a chance process to walk and to write in the hour before sunset...
...9 seagulls arrive flying in loose formation... they land on the grass almost simultaneously... and now more arrive in ones and twos... there appears to be no leader... they spread out and walk with heads down... and pecking occasionally... a runner passes within a few metres but that doesn't disturb them... they seem to move as one being unless they are frightened by something...
...my attention shifts to the panorama of tall trees... and the brick houses behind them... that encircle the playing fields... when i arrived they were sunlit but now they are in shadow... but the streaks of cloud above the trees are still reflecting pink light... and blue-grey... while the seagulls are still walking on the grass with heads downward...
...walking south i see the moon above trees just before it disappears behind a fast-moving cloud... without my new spectacles it appeared doubled but with them it becomes one... and then perhaps two again...
...then i walk to a seat below an oak tree to write this... and say good evening to two ladies with walking sticks who emerge from the trees as they walk away towards the houses...
...as soon as i look back the way i came (from the west) i see tree tops and a tall spire already black against the sunset... there is pink sky beyond the edge of a grey cloud that is drifting over the playing fields... and the grass is turning greeny-grey as streetlights switch on beyond the trees...
...the tree above me is turning black in the dusk as it appears to transform from a bower-like to a cave-like enclosure... and with these new glasses i can see each leaf that is silhouetted against the darkening sky...
...a man with two large dogs walks past me in near darkness and then says good night... after i say hello, and keep writing...
...seeing that it's exactly 8 o'clock i stop writing and pay attention to the whole scene... before deciding which way to walk home...
...i walked south across darkening fields and along a tree-covered horse track that separates the forest from the city... where i stopped at a supermarket to buy the soft fruits and vegetarian soups that are just now at low prices...
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