The Song of the Earth

“The longer one is alone, the easier it is to hear the song of the earth.”
Robert Anton Wilson
Joined A for a walk along the canal today for a catch-up, haven’t met up over the winter and with all the showery weather this has been our first opportunity. The canal has been such an integral part of my history; in the winter of ’63 we played football on it and there were massive ‘ice floes’ overtopping the locks. It’s always been a natural ribbon running through the industrial areas too, so something of an escape to another world; poking around in the murky depths and crawling through the tunnels beneath the canal which carried the streams and small rivers under the old industrial artery. It was a place for sailing balsa wood boats – and destroying them too – and one of my first holidays with friends (not family) was a canal boat trip from Goytre Wharf to Talybont (we didn’t make it to Brecon). It’s a natural subject for artists of course; I bought a watercolour by someone I knew from school days. There’s something about running water that attracts I suppose, and also the light that gets reflected and bounced around creating all sorts of interesting diversions for the eye. 
Walk done we took another walk down memory lane to The Upper Cock, once a popular destination for us (especially during later years at Croesy School); it’s been several years since we’ve been back and lunch there was good (and filling), a great way to end our meander through the landscape of our past.