What William Blake thought

According to Peter Ackroyd`s biography of William Blake, the first morning Blake was in Felpham, his home for two years on the coast south of London, “Blake came out of his cottage and found a ploughman in a neighbouring field. At this moment the ploughboy working with him called out ‘Father, the gate is open.’ For Blake, this was an emblem of his new life, and the work he was about to begin.” Blake perceived this experience as an auspicious sign from the universe, one indicating a future of openness, creativity, and the presence of the divine intervening in his life. At that moment Blake knew that he had made the right choice in moving to Felpham; the universe told him as much. 

The Hidden Trail, 11 September 2025

 A sunny day, blue sky, and around 22 C. 

Henry David Thoreau on gardens and nature

 

The Hidden Trail, 2022

Photographs of the Hidden Trail

And then for my afternoon walks I have a garden, larger than any artificial garden that I have read of and far more attractive to me, -- mile after mile of embowered walks, such as no nobleman's grounds can boast, with animals running free and wild therein as from the first, -- varied with land and water prospect, and, above all, so retired that it is extremely rare that I meet a single wanderer in its mazes. No gardener is seen therein, no gates...You may wander away to solitary bowers and brooks and hills.

                                   —Henry David Thoreau, "Journal", 20 June 1850.

          

I long for wildness, a nature which I cannot put my foot through, woods where the wood thrush forever sings, where the hours are early morning ones, and there is dew on the grass, and the day is forever unproved, where I might have a fertile unknown for a soil about me. 

                        —Henry David Thoreau, "Journal", 22 June 1853       

         

A man is not to be measured by the virtue of his described actions or the wisdom of his expressed thoughts merely, but by that free character he is, and is felt to be, under all circumstances.
                       — Henry David Thoreau, "Sir Walter Raleigh"

                   

The Hidden Trail, 4 August 2025

I hadn't been on the hidden trail for several months so I was surprised at how overgrown it had become. It wasn’t always like this, the hidden trail changes with the seasons. It's like being in the country even though it is adjacent to the backyards of houses on one side and train tracks on the other side. So, maybe it's a little of the country in the city, not the downtown city but the neighbourhoods just outside of the downtown core. I have always wanted to be near nature and, even as a child, I tried to find places of nature and solitude, birds and insects, and small animals that are in the city. I liked to explore. Today, on the trail, I saw a ground hog, the other day at home I saw a skunk . . . all minor but they are a part of nature and give meaning to life, meaning not found in some of the other more lucrative things people do. As children we used to explore buildings still under construction, we used to go in old abandoned houses, we used to explore different neighbourhoods, we used to ride our bikes anywhere we wanted; I guess we were safe, or safe enough, we never thought about being safe. None of these adventures were told to our parents, why would they be? Our parents had lives of their own and we never thought that we should tell them anything about our lives. And today we still need places like the hidden trail, places in nature where people can be in touch with nature, where people can breath fresh air, walk on the earth instead of concrete and asphalt, where people can get away from the cars, noise, pollution, and other people, places that haven't been destroyed with condos and apartment buildings and roads and highways, where you don't have to see other people or be with them; nature is healing, just being in nature is healing. Nature heals the undiagnosed symptoms of urban life.  

Edited: 07 August 2025

The hidden trail, 23 April 2025

Peace and quiet on the hidden trail.

The hidden trail on 22 March 2025

On Walking

I am a walker, always walking alone, usually taking one of two or three possible routes depending on how I feel, weather conditions, and how much time I have for a walk. Sometimes I take photographs on my walk, my solitary walk; it’s all I do for exercise, but it’s also time for thinking. I am told that to be healthy one needs to lift weights, go to the gym, do yoga, tai chi, do jig saw puzzles to prevent dementia, don’t eat salt, avoid sugar, don’t smoke, don’t drink, eat a Mediterranean diet, and more, and I’d like to do these things, but all I do is walk. 

                                            

The hidden trail in November

It’s good to be alive/ on a fall day/ with the sunlight in the yellow leaves/ and the smell of fall/ in the air . . .      7 November 2024