33) Forest Bathing in Surrey

Monday 19th February. 

11-20am. I just dropped my friends George and his wife Sharon, at Gatwick Airport. They're going to Turkey for four days - grabbing the opportunity of a cheap off-peak break to strengthen their relationship away from the difficult family dynamics that I shared last week.

This morning George phoned me to tell me about the plan and ask if he could park his car at my house until they return. I said of course. I was really happy that they could take this break. 
Then he asked if I would be able to drop them at Gatwick Airport. I said that was not possible. My workshop was coming up in a few days and I was well behind with the preparation. I could not afford to take hours out to drive them to the airport.  But minutes afterwards I phoned back. I asked when they would be returning. Friday. And when do you need to get home? I asked. 'If you can stay here from Friday and help me with the preparation, then come to the Workshop on Sunday and help with that, I will be happy to take you to Gatwick.' They agreed. 

I am an expert when it comes to toxic stress. As a teacher I saw the way that stress often affected both students and staff alike. I joke that our Western Education System - certainly in the UK - is nothing but a Stress-Factory. This  is why I became an entrepreneur and created my company 'Ultimate Stess Solutions..' It also  means that when I myself am getting stressed, I am very aware of this. And this Monday was just one good example. 
I know how much has to be done to prepare for the workshops and I had spent a week in the Midlands, at the start of the month, with this family as well as my own. Returning to London, with February a short month, the workshop was approaching and I was behind with preparation and very aware of my rising stress-level. It was a risk to take a 'day off' at this point, but to have my friends committed to helping from Friday onwards, gave me the confidence to take a day off to focus on reducing my own stress. 

Motivated by the limited time before they arrived, I was able to make some good progress. I weighed all the silk-dyes and ordered those needed. I washed the plastic table-cloths used in silk-painting and hung them out. I edited some work I did on my website recently. Without the deadline of their arrival,I would never have been able to focus as well as that. 

We had a lovely drive to Gatwick, taking the direct route rather than motorways. I had not realised what lovely, hilly and wooded countryside there is in that part of England. 

After leaving Gatwick Airport, I stopped at a carpark to eat some breakfast and look on Google for footpaths going through woodland. I would give myself an hour or two of quality Forest Bathing to reduce stress, before going home. Forest Bathing is perhaps the most effective and powerful way of relaxing the neocortex. Having grown up on a farm, with a local wood as my childhood haunt, it is my favourite way of de-stressing. I found a footpath about 20 minutes drive away and made my way peacefully, enjoying the beautiful countryside.

I pulled into the carpark at and took the photograph at the top of this blog. But then my phone ran out of power, so since I couldn't take photos I decided to write the blog along the way.  

Needless to say, once I came home in the evening, I was way too busy to write it up. All my focus was on the coming workshop, and I've not been able to get back to the blogs until now. The following photo is the countryside in this area, from an online article about Harewoods Walk.

Here are the notes I wrote from the Woods.

I saw lots of snowdrops on the way here and daffodils with fat buds just beginning to open.  

I'm sitting on a fat tree trunk in the sunshine.
The sound of distant traffic is steady but there is also birdsong. Aeroplanes come and go. I brought mixed seeds as a snack, and a bottle of sparkling water.  I'm enjoying them and relaxing, breathing gently, exhaling longer than inhaling - which has the effect of 'turning down the volume' of the stress response.

Sun sparkles on holly-leaves and glints on moss growing on this tree-trunk. A pair of squirrels sit on a branch high above me. They are grooming each other. Another squirrel runs across the small branches from one tree to another, as the branches sway slightly in a breeze which doesn't actually disturb the air around me.. As I looked around I saw two more squirrels racing through the trees, up and down, chasing each other. The branches are alive with squirrels.

It's lovely to just sit here and breathe and look around - despite the sound of cars and aeroplanes, bird-song dominates and it's very peaceful. Sights and sounds, cool air, my own breath...

Gratitude. 

The following photo is from a Forest Bathing outing I took with a friend in Epping Forest, a few weeks ago.

The trees are not fallen naturally but cut. The stumps look quite healthy so I wonder why these trees were felled. The following photo is from Unsplash, by Jasper Garratt.

I followed on downstream and have come to a wooden bridge. The steps up from the bridge are like a gentle waterfall. At the bottom this little stream runs out onto the bridge - spreading mud over the slats of the bridge so that the stream runs almost half way across the bridge, but slowly trickling between the slats and tinkling with a gentle sound, into the stream below. This is a delightful musical sound as the trickling water falls and splashes into the water below.

I did explore the steps, carefully stepping on the wooden sides of the steps, straddling the little water-falling stream, It was wet and squelchy to walk up the steps, But above the steps was a wide expanse of pure mud and water. Even with wellington boots I would have had a job to cross that. 

The following photo of these steps is from the online guide to the Harewood Walk. Clearly taken in summer and not in February, after weeks of rain.

I came back down the steps and across the brige again. Here both sides of the stream are dotted with emerging Celandine leaves. and will be a sheet of gold in a few weeks time - a carpet of golden Celandine.

Now I'm uncomfortably wedged into the fork of a tree. The trunk behind me is a twisted branch as thick as the trunk. It goes out horizontally on one side, then curves up at an angle that gets steeper and steeper until it is vertical, before branching out in all directions above me.
There's a smaller stream on my right, which I crossed lower down, where it was joining the bigger one which I've been following downstream, since leaving the path, early on. 
I remember when I was a young child that I would greet each flower that appeared in the spring. One of the earliest was 'Dogs Mercury.' Looking around, I found some just emerging, in bud. 
This is Dogs Mercury from internet. 

I crossed the stream on the right and walked up the slope, ducking branches and detouring where it was too wet and muddy. I guess my path was a deer path, although there were no tracks. This led to the edge of the wood and I stepped into a wide meadow, a very marshy field. I walked back 'upstream' but the curve of the field was taking me away from  my destination.  I took an other 'barely visible path' back into the forest. The route was underneath a blackthorn tree, just coming into bloom. I picked a twig. The path  continued through a bramble thicket which grabbed at my clothes. Back under the trees, there was nowhere suitable to sit so I leaned against a tree and wrote - ' There are green parrots squawking in the trees and a robin is trilling its cascading joyful song.'

This is a quick sketch of the blackthorn twig that I drew in my diary. 

I have to walk downstream, through dense undergrowth and brambles to get around a garden fence on the left. Only then could I loop around and make my way back towards the entrance of the forest. Now well on the way back, sitting on another mossy log, eating the last of my mixed seeds. I scattered some for birds and squirrels.

The ground is covered with last year's brown leaves, pierced with vivid green spikes of bluebell leaves. It will be beautiful in May.  This is Eartham Woods, nearby, from a Surrey Woods website. 

On the way back towards the car-park, I passed a hazel tree - too big to call it a hazel-bush - covered with catkins. But it leans out over the valley of the stream near the meadow. The 'path here' is possibly made by badgers as it is very low. I am crouching, almost crawling here, with twigs catching in my hair. I notice the ground, lichens on the twigs, the scent of damp soil...

I found the path I'd left  because of the mud, early on. Lots of human footprints again. I passed the bridge, now away to my right. I walk up a steep hill, the ground  semi liquid, water seeping down to join the stream. Now sitting on another fallen tree-trunk, out of breath.  
Sitting here, I see another human being for the first time. He's coming down the 'waterfall-step' from the far side of the stream.
He has two dogs with him. One is about the size of my dog 'silver' who was a bearded collie cross. Like Silver this one is quite hairy, black and white. The other is black, short-haired, long-legged and taller. They passed on a parallel path, not far from me. But I don't think the man saw me. The smaller dog was covered in mud - especially tummy and legs. I was surprised to notice a happy feeling rise in my tummy and chest - a sense of relief that I do not have to worry about a muddy dog when I get back to my car.