The past few days we have been under the kosh firstly from the grey and secondly from a malaise which is becoming test worthy.1 We did however venture out today for a walk with The Borg in the rare sunshine and what a walk it turned out to be as we discovered a completely new wooded area that has huge potential for us. Positively years of work!
This area is part of the mass of wild land around the runway which if you recall we only discovered by chance as we pursued our autumn campaign. Our new zone is at the other side of this wild area which one can only assume has not been developed because of the runway. We had not planned on much of a walk, just to the runway and back actually, but bright sunshine and the refreshing bite to the oxygen filled us with boost and we decided to go on a little more. We ambled on, talking to the Borg and stopping here and there to frame up a couple of views until after about a km we came to the crown of a hill and it was time for us to stick or twist. From this point we could see the track leading a ways away to distant trees, as usual, but there was just the slight sense of light and space behind the trees and that made us curious; could there be a body of water?2 Finding our feelings of malaise quite trumped by the spirit of discovery we strode on and it was soon clear that we were heading towards a wooded area made up of mature, gnarled trees which as you know is a rarity in these parts and often an indicator of a protected area and indeed we later discovered that this was in fact, on account of some bird or other and possibly because of the old manor house which once stood on the grounds, a nature reserve. In addition we were right about the water. The wood sits next to a beautiful lake which I think is a new one on us, even now I cannot quite make out where the other side may be. We made straight for its edge which was enclosed by tall trees on each side which had the excellent effect of increasing the sense of thrust into open space when one gets to the beach and looks out. Deep breaths. A small bay with an old boat house nearby, a few up turned rowing boats in storage and a pontoon extending some 10 meters into the ice. We have tried in the past, rather badly I feel, to explain ice to the Singularity and so today it was a good opportunity to show it a fine example so we took a little stroll out as far as we dared.
Heading back into the wood the size and age of the trees had a real impact, as did the amount of fallen heroes which no doubt came a cropper during the great Alfida storm of a few years ago. These fallen specimens contain such drama that they alone could occupy us for months.
We grabbed three sketches.
On our last recce before the long journey back to the car we confirmed that the wood is accessible from the other side of the Görla estate and indeed there seems to be ample parking. The only negative is that a helicopter landing pad is so close by that the peace of the wood is sporadically interrupted by the sort of racket one hears in a Vietnam war movie! It reminded me of the HMS Raleigh shooting range we contended with in Carbielle Wharf,3 but all in all it is an important discovery for us as it is probably the most picturesque wood of this kind we have available and the only one which affords us views of the wood and the water. It feels all the more like a boon as these places are never advertised or publicised by the kommune and are essentially like secrets which it would be quite possible to miss. I imagine there are plenty of Norrtälje natives who are unaware of its existence.
We paid for this adventure however as soon after arriving back at the flat we felt our malaise increase and have been glued to the sofa ever since. What a contrast to the energy we felt just earlier. We have however managed to see, via my mothers British feed, a documentary by Baddiel about the anger inducing addictiveness of social media.4 No revelations of great note, other than perhaps that he is too far gone to conduct such an investigation as he himself is addicted to the tech. As part of the show he gave up his social media use for two weeks during which he freely admitted feeling first, withdrawal, then 'great benefit'. His brain scan even revealed an improvement, but then he was straight back on to his twitter when the experiment had finished and right away, after posting of his return from exile, he was visibly relieved and delighted at receiving such nice welcome back messages, thus demonstrating apparently that 'there are some nice people out there after all'. The strange part of this for us was the way that these tweets seemed to have real meaning to him, having perhaps the same effect as someone approaching him in reality and welcoming him back with a box on the ear and a warm shake of the hand. He's too far gone precisely because a tweet to him from a stranger has great meaning to him. You will say that we simply do not understand that one can have relations with people over twitter, well yes, we have never used any of it but surely one cannot let a tweet from a random follower, a stranger, some @sallykim6, go to ones head. Do we talk strangely about this? After a few seconds more staring Baddiel announces happily that "23 people have liked my tweet, 3 people have replied to it, you see its quite nice despite all this stuff about the age of rage and the hate industry, the first responses have been very nice." He'll do alright in the metaverse that one.
Yours, possibly with COVID,
John
1. COVID test.
2. John is approaching the Mellingeholm reserve.
3. The firing range of the HMS Raleigh naval training complex was close to where John moored his houseboat. See Torpoint Art Service Work 5, View of Thanckes Park
4. See David Baddiel: Social Media, Anger and Us