Wait for bus
Bus doesn't come
Give up waiting
Walk away from bus stop
Uphill through interminable housing estate
Over first stile. Four horses galloping
Rain stops. Hot
Path skirts hilltop establishment encircled with razor wire and chainlink fencing
Warning CCTV In Operation
Derelict house in middle of field
Roofless. Ivy-covered
Windows smashed or bricked-up with grey breeze-blocks
Echoing shouts seem to come from it
Downhill steeply
Mud. Barbed wire and brambles. Slippery
Still very high up. A buzzard flies below me
No wind. Crows chatter in the woods
Sun comes out
Cut a walking stick from a hazel copse
Easier on the muddy slope
Down into a valley over a stream
Chickens and ducks pecking about
Muddy field below an old church
Water gurgling and pouring
A sheep bleats in the distance
The ducks are watching me
They've alerted some geese
They stare at me
Suspiciously? I know. I shouldn't be here
Old stony cart-track between hedges alive with birds bursting out as I approach
Old-mans-beard garlanded with red berries
Something has changed. Evening is pulling down the sun
Walk back up to the hills
Stalk about in a lumped field covering an old village
Traffic noise carrying easily in the stillness
A plaque tells me that hundreds of people died here fighting each other
Three hundred and sixty years ago
Suddenly it turns very cold
Warning Security Guards On Patrol
Cow field. Smell of hay and cow shit
Muddy track down into valley