I have a fairly regular morning wander routine:- phone in pocket, hat on, camera at the ready, and of course my mp3 player on the go. This morning was no different, I wandered down the lane, clambered over a gate and down the hill into a small wood, all the while accompanied by La Tarantella. It was I must admit a pleasant start, but I started to realize as I looked for the right photograph that I was feeling disconnected from the wood, something was missing. Then, as I stood a Blackbird took flight from a nearby tree giving me a bit of a start and I realized I couldn’t hear the wood like I used to. So, I took out the MP3 player, switched it off, pulled the earphones out, and listened to the sounds of the wood around me. A short distance to my right a small stream bubbled over stones and under fallen branches; birds twittered and tweeted around me; leaves rustled in the wind. Suddenly I felt connected to the land and for a while I forgot the camera and pretty much everything else.
When I returned to the real world I remembered the camera and noticed the light breaking through the cloud, and I started snapping away with the camera.
