The life of a book character would be a most ambivalent existence.

On one hand, it would be a life of drama, excitement, and enjoyment. Any writer worth their salt knows that books only include the details necessary to tell the story. Frills and tangents only confuse the reader, and obfuscate the point.

But simultaneously, how would one life such a life? Living, knowing that there is only one single ending. Living, knowing that every single step is predetermined, knowing that you are simply a vessel to convey the author’s story.

It is selfish in a way, for the author to take command of someone else’s life this way. But they are responsible for their characters. They have created them; so their will determines their character’s fate.

But maybe I’m looking at this wrong. Maybe the life of the character is the writing of the book. The finished product, the novel being published, is simply an account of the life lived as imagined by the author.

So characters live in their stories as history, the book being a testament to the life led in the mind of the author.

Hello America:
What message do you think will be delivered to us this evening??? We wonder if there is really a true intention of winning in Afghanistan??? So many stories and not one seems good enough for our troops there and in the other parts of the world where we have placed them. Let us hear the right words and let us get our country back into straight thinking instead of the ever present crooked paths that are always in front of us.

God Bless America and he Constitution of the United States.

Regards….

Admin/FBP…

“There comes a time when every life goes off course. In this desperate moment you must choose your direction. Will you fight to stay on the path while others tell you who you are? Or will you label yourself? Will you be honoured by your choice? Or will you embrace your new path? Each morning you choose to move forward or to simply give up.”

In the pursuit of following your dreams of life,you need to manage and make good decisions, You will have to have a battle between yourselves to make the decide.

     I would like to suggest you a good technique for decision-making through your life ,

Step 1:

     Try to think of a person who is really interested and caring about your life.It may be your mother,father,sister,brother,love,friend,well-wisher

Step 2:

     Compare the result, of the decision you are making.

Step 3 :

     Make decisions, according to which will make the person proud of you for the decision you have made.

Result :

       Apart from logic and own gut’s,This kind of decision will make you have good reputation and highly succesful decisions.

Yeah, I should’ve been posting my last accomplishments, but I can’t. I don’t know exactly why, but I felt no urge of doing that the last few days. And I have some good stories to tell that I’ll probably post later, the finish the cycle. But the thing is… I’m a little bit odd these days. 

I’m amazingly happy to leave Korea, going to Europe, coming back home… but even if it wasn’t the best time of my life, it was my life for six months. Perhaps some of the latest happenings (men related), at the same time gave me some leverage and got me back to the not so good hooking up scenarium. Hooking up is awesome once it is happening but most of the times it leaves you scars… some minor, some deep. I think I got both kinds last week and it made me uncontent and it is reflecting in my farewell. 

But, suck it up, I have to cope with it. And I have to let it go, and I have to say goodbye.

Goodbye Korea, goodbye Seoul. I’m leaving in 12 hours. I have a lot to think about you. We are so different! And yet I can say I made friends… some on the last call, that’s a shame, but I will still take them with me. 

Perhaps, Korea, we will meet again. I don’t know. And being truth to us, it is not an eagerness. But I know life is bigger than us, and if it took me here once maybe it’ll bring me twice. And we did good, didn’t we? We are a hook up that went bad but we managed to make it nice. That’s a huge accomplishment, don’t forget. I promise I won’t.

Take care. Have my love.

Last night I didn’t want to sleep in my apartment, even though I have it for a few more nights. I wanted to sleep in the van, so November 25 became my official First Night. Here’s what my bed looked like:

Now I can’t truly say that I’m a vandweller yet: I still came home to have a shower (and see? I’m still calling the apartment ‘home’). The metamorphosis is a gradual one… but it’s definitely begun!

Some lame news though… a chip that appeared in my window last week has now grown to a 2″ crack, which is too big to repair, so now I need a new windshield. The idea of taking my home to a repair shop is kind of unsettling.

The Charlton Gateway is a semi-developed Gateway Site that has become neglected and deserves a little care and attention. It came to my attention because it has been threatened by a proposal to build offices across a link to it, to offset the costs of building a Concorde museum next to the Warner Village.

The central idea of the Carlton Gateway is a walk exploring the lost village of Charlton , which was flattened to build a runway for the ill-fated Brabazon airliner, which struggled into the air in 1949. So the walk is part of the same history that the museum is going to celebrate.

The attraction of the walk comes from the fact that it goes through a piece of semi-intact countryside that has been preserved by the threat of aircraft falling on it.

It is closer to the Mall than it is to Patchway, whose Town Council developed the Charlton Walk. It seems to be used mainly by dog-walkers visiting the Mall.

The leaflet accompanying the Walk highlights links to the countryside beyond the M5 and the Community Forest Path at Berwick Lane, Easter Compton and the Banana Bridge over the M5 at Patchway as well as population centres in Patchway and Filton. The Leaflet also refers to links to the Patchway Greenway and the Filton Heritage Walk. Links to Brentry and Southmead in Bristol are also possible but are not highlighted in the leaflet. Some of these links are also explored in chapter of the first Crossing Boundaries Book, Out from the Centre.

The Gateway was developed by Patchway Town Council, the Patchway Conservation Group and South Gloucestershire Council with the aid of money from the landfill tax.

Since this money is only available for capital projects, no money has been made available for maintenance so it needs a bit of a bramble bash and perhaps a little imaginative planting.

This could be financed by the museum, which ought to have an interest in the project, but there are other possibilities for generating economic activity to support the Gateway. For example, a café might be built along with the offices offering views over the airfield and a dog walking service could be introduced for dog-owners visiting the Mall etc.

Lawrence Weston City Farm was suggested as a Forest Gateway Site by the Forest of Avon Team, because it is closely linked to the Lawrence Weston Moor Local Nature reserve, and because it is close to a population centre (Lawrence Weston).

It is of interest because it can be joined to the Community Forest Path by linking paths at the Iron Bridge, at Berwick Lodge, via Hill End Drive to Blaise car park and at the railway bridge off Meadowland Road. A link through Haw Wood (another potential Gateway Site) might also be possible.

The present administration at the Avon Riding Centre for the Disabled in Henbury are ideally placed to catalyze the development of this Forest Gateway Site as they have taken over management of that part of Lawrence Weston Moor that is not managed by the Avon Wildlife Trust. They have already improved access to the Moor by providing rudimentary stiles and will be hosting a footrace in January, which will explore key areas of the Lawrence Moor Gateway Site.

ACTION

1) Establish the right of way between the City Farm and the Local Nature Reserve between the playing fields and the M5 by collecting evidence of uninterrupted use over 20 years.

2a) Open up the path to the Moor around Bankleaze School by persuading PROW officers to act and by offering support with path clearing.

2b) Alternatively, negotiate a permissive path round the other side of Bankleaze School on an apparently well-trodden route.

3) Create PROW across Moor from LNR to the  creepway under railway beside M5 by negotiation with landowner.

4) Establish status of PROW from Moor to Hill End Drive.

5) Establish PROW from Meadowland Road to Haw Wood by collecting evidence of continuous use over 20 year period.

6) Work to keep the above paths clear of brambles and nettles etc.

7) Clear brambles and nettles from path alongside motorway towards Berwick Farm and then to CFP at Berwick Lodge.

When the above is carried out, it would be a good idea to clear paths through Haw Wood.

I was walking down the old dirt paths and slowly navigating my way through the landmine of pinecones and taking in each snapshot of scenery that dripped with raw beauty. I was taken in by all the things around me. The sweet harmonious melodies of the birds singing in choired unison and the romantic whispered chirpings of the cicadas’ calling me deeper into the forest, deeper into the night. It is this call that leads me to wonder if there is more to life than a book? Is all that life is, summed up in the pages of 66 authors?

I wouldn’t be able to share with you my experience in a captivating forest if all I did was read about the forest. I might be able to give you glimpses and a sort of scientific approach to what it might feel like if I were in a forest, but the experience is vastly different than the science. One is factual, the other is life-altering. This isn’t to say that facts don’t have the ability to change our lives, but studies have shown that one out of one person are always changed by their experiences, whether good or bad. I could have explained to you a map of the forest, but it wouldn’t have given you the contours, colors and outlines that you can only experience in person.

You can sit down and read a really good book. You might even feel like you are one of the characters drifting through each of the pages, but there is nothing like living your own story. If we replace the word living with writing, then maybe what we might be able to say is that all of us are still writing not just our story, but God’s story as well. We get to write with Him. In The Bible: The Biography by Karen Armstrong, she asserts that before the Old Testament was canonized that the Jews had this belief that they were responsible to reinterpret scripture as much as possible so that it was relevant and spoke to the current structures of society. In fact, one place, she even says that they had thrown out certain parts of scripture because it wasn’t relevant to the time. For most, this is a different view to what we have been taught(but just because it’s different doesn’t mean its not true). And if it is true, then what are the ripples in the pond? I think for those who believe the Bible holds all the answers then it seems like an attack rather than an enquiry, because it seems a bit reductionistic to try and make the Bible anything other than the Word of God. Yet, this is isn’t the hope of postmoderns or those with questions. It is to experience God as those in scripture did. So rather than see the bible as trail map to be studied, it is more like an invitation between friends to come and walk with God and discover the raw unedited beauty of the journey. To come and discover God. To “taste and see that he is good”. Both words for taste and see in the Hebrew when translated mean “to experience”. God is inviting us all not to simply read the pages, but live the pages. Write the pages. And Be the pages.

Postmodernism is running through the halls of our churches and fortune 500 companies and classrooms, but is postmodernism the enemy? Can’t postmodernism be a good thing too? It can help us revisit things and begin asking hard questions that maybe aren’t that comfortable but might be necessary to pursue together to find the answers to. Postmodernism is simply asking the question “Is there more to life than this? Is there more to the Bible than this? Is there more to truth than this?” The ancient Jewish followers of YHWH believed it was imperative to ask questions. To be Jew meant you had questions. To be a person who lived and breathed meant you were a person who was driven to seek answers to those questions, no matter how long the journey took. No matter where those questions took you, it was your responsibility as a Jew to make sure you found the answer.

I was going to write about a place I found earlier today, then I started thinking how I came across this sim: Tpglourenco Forcella showed me his last video shot at Pixel Dreams, a place impossible not to fall in love with. As I watched his machinima, I realized they had used a lot of [Organica] items, which are one of my favourite landscape suppliers. This thought made me go back to Pixel Dreams to explore a bit more and I noticed the amazing waves. Which on its turn led me to Las Islas – Casa del Mar, where I awe at Naiman Broome’s creations. I had a peek at his profile and decided to visit Havre de Paix to take a Look of the Day picture.

End of chapter.

Only because this made me extrapolate and realise how easily in our lives one thing leads to another. I often hear people say we have to live each day at a time… but in reality, each day is but a preparation for the next day to come. Look around and think of the life you lead, today. Then, revisit yesterday. See ? Not difficult to understand that you wouldn’t be where you are now if you hadn’t go through all the things you experienced in the past. I have this great job today, with supporting and understanding bosses only because I endured really hard times and unbelievable pushing directors all my life. My amazing boyfriend, I would have never met him if I had not endured the poor relationship I was having at the time. The new cozy apartment I am moving into was discovered as I took my son to school.

I can’t but feel that all the pieces of the puzzle are fitting their own place now. That often you have to feel really lousy before you are ready to receive perfection in your life. Sometimes, we are simply blinded by people around us and events happening one after the other, and you don’t have the time to think what it is that makes you happy. And you know what? That is not a problem, for life itelf will find the right timing to make you stop and re-think your priorities. If you think that is a drawback… well, it is not. It is just an offer of whoever is out there looking for us, a chance to start all over again. An opportunity to grow and become wiser. Like a time-out, you know? A period to take the trash out and clean off the dust.

This is the best way I can describe all I ent through during these last two or three years. I am arriving now at my new destination… and I am sure this will be one full of sunshine and hot days, soft waves dancing beneath my feet and birds singing among the palm trees.

And now, I am off to live this day fully… because I know it will lead me to new and peaceful paths that I will be walking along with my beloved ones.

(Fashion details:
Skin:Tea Lane ~TL~ Agave Skin – Candi(freckle)
Hair: [ Love Soul ] Hair*004-A*Brown
Sweater: *BOOM* Tamed Anya’s Orange
Pants: Doux Petit Dahl !DPD: The Jeans [Faded Black]
Boots: ETD Heather Boots (Cognac)
Jewelry: *Ticky Tacky* Banjee Girl Jewelry Set)

In 36 hours it is not going to be Scorpio anymore. That’s fine, amazing Sagittarius will start. I am Sagittarius, and that means my birthday is very near, which always make me happy. I’m one of these people that like their own birthday. No dissimulation, no escaping, no playing it cool: I love to be remembered and congratulated.

However, dear Scorpio, I’ll miss you again for a whole new year. I’ll miss your controverse, your making me crazy, I’ll miss all the good stuff you bring to me.  I have this fantastic configuration where I don’t have a astral hell. Regarding to my Mercury, Venus and Mars, all in Scorpio, when everybody else is facing the hardest days of their astral cicle, I’m having fun. What a fun! With you I get through psicopaths and lovefools…

Only 36 more hours and you will be gone. I just hope I can make it nicely until I meet you again.

With all my love and gratitude,

See you next year.

Playgrounds can also be built for older children and young people. They are an example of such objects. On the land many elements are. There special paths on which it is possible to practise sport are extreme, to go on skateboards, on roller skate. There elements allowing for the learning of tricks are also. Playgrounds of this type are mainly public places and then they are in the fresh air. However they are and private playgrounds situated in buildings but the entry to them are possible after carrying the established payment. Elements serving the learning of tricks are called obstacles differently arranged, have the different size what is deciding the degree of the problem and the popularity of such a place.  They belong to basic obstacles półrury, ramps, banks, pyramids, funboxy, quotery, tubes i.e. grindboxy.  To most popular and being in the centre playgrounds they belong undoubtedly to funboxy. They are giving the possibility of the expansion enabling more evolution or tricks what additionally additions are increasing in the form of pitches, the railing to smash, of stairs. With the help of banks and  gaining momentum to centre elements of the park is possible. It is possible on them also to perform acrobatic manoeuvres, they are fit for joining to different elements and additions in the form of the railing, steps and building the wall. In many cases banks and quartery are included in platforms. Playgrounds have ramps it being interested in obstacles which ramps and the mini are very much. Ramps are intended to carry difficult acrobatics out in the form of somersaults, turnovers which advanceds can make more in such sports. The safety demands that she is appropriately wide. On mini ramps beginners can learn different acrobatics particularly when she is equipped with different additional elements

The Forest Gateway Site is a useful concept introduced by the Community Forest initiative, but Gateway Sites have one meaning for the Forest of Avon and a slightly different meaning for the “Friends of the Community Forest Path,” which stems from a distinctly different idea of what is meant by a forest.

For the Forest of Avon, which is supported by the Forestry Commission, a forest is place where you plant trees. But this is the opposite of the original meaning of the word forest, which stems from the Latin foras, meaning “Out!” as in the answer to the question, “Where are you going dear?” Forest woodland is woodland that is outside the enclosure; hence the trees in a forest (and there do not have to be any trees in a forest) are not forestry plantations but wildwood.

Gateway Sites originated in the endless search by the Forestry Commission for a new use for the Forest Estate now that there is now longer a need for a strategic reserve of pit props. Thus, for them, a Gateway Site is associated with visitor centres, interpretive panels, picnic sites and so on. However, for a Path, with the avowed aim of leading people out of the city into the countryside, the meaning of a Forest Gateway Site is much simpler. It is the way out.

Obviously, we are not going to find any wildwood on the outskirts of Bristol. So our Gateways are going to lead people into areas that are only relatively wilder than the city and are not forests in a literal sense. This means that whether a particular place is a suitable Forest Gateway Site or not will always be a matter of opinion.

Gateways on the Community Forest Path

The opinions of those “Woodwoses” who have completed a continuous circuit of the Community Forest Path may be considered particularly relevant.

The majority chose to cross the Clifton Suspension Bridge either at the beginning or the end of their circuit. This probably reflects the proximity of the Bridge to the Green man in the Deer Park. Of these, approximately half started in Long Ashton, so that the countryside proper was encountered by crossing the A370. A start at the Suspension Bridge means that there is a stretch of road to be negotiated before entering the Ashton Court Estate, which is of course an enclosure. Nevertheless the Suspension Bridge has a lot to recommend it as the most prominent Gateway Site on the Community Forest Path, because when you cross towards the west, you are leaving the City of Bristol and entering North Somerset.

Two others started at the Blaise car park for an anticlockwise circuit and at Keysham for a clockwise circuit respectively. Both of these give the impression of setting out on a journey to another kind of space. From the Blaise car park, one sets out across the grass towards the distant woods and there is a fair bit of green open space to go through before you reach the Trym. Keynsham Memorial Park also leads to emphatic Gateways at either end.  The southern exit leads under an arch through  an old people’s home to emerge beside a weir and a riverside path into the open countryside.

There are doubtless other possible starting points on the Community Forest Path, from which one could head “Out!” such as the railway bridge off Meadowland Road in the Botany Bay area of Henbury and the Banana Bridge over the M5 leading out from Patchway via the Tumps.

Gateways to the Community Forest Path

However, Gateways that lead people out of the city to the Community Forest Path are, if anything, more important. The main attraction of the Community Forest Path stems from the fact that it does not go through more densely populated areas, which means it is less able to lead people out of the city. This is the raison d’être of the Crossing Boundaries Series of Books, but the books were written for a different purpose and cannot be used uncritically to construct Gateways to the Community Forest Path.

Three potential Gateways connected to the books are prime candidates for our attention: the St Andrew’s Gateway in Hartcliffe, the Lawrence Weston Community Farm Gateway and the Charlton Gateway at Cribbs Causeway, all of which have come to our attention because of associated problems.

The St Andrew’s Gateway needs severe bramble bashing and signage; the Lawrence Weston Gateway requires bramble bashing and the legal establishment of a couple of footpaths and the Charlton Gateway is threatened by the development of the “Concorde Museum.”

Of these, the Charlton Gateway is the most fully developed and has been funded by South Gloucestershire Council, the Countryside Agency and a landfill tax grant from South Gloucestershire Environment Body. A leaflet has been produced by the Patchway Conservation Group describing “Charlton Walk” which is a linear route around Filton Airfield, dedicated to the lost village of Charlton, which was flattened to lengthen the runway to accommodate the ill-fated Brabazon airliner in 1949. A page entitled “Links to Town and Country,” which details links to the Community Forest Path at Spaniorum Hill, Easter Compton, Pegwell brake and the Patchway Greenway, makes it clear why this is a potential Gateway Site. There are also wooden flower sculptures marking some of the entrances to the site. The problem is – the funding comes in the form of capital grants and there does not seem to be any allocation for maintenance, so parts of the path are overgrown with brambles.

The Charlton Walk leaflet, obtainable form Lucy Hamid at Patchway Town Hall, Callicroft House, Rodway Road, Patchway, South Gloucestershire, BS34 5DQ – 01454 868530, gives an object lesson on how to develop a Gateway Site. One route linking the Charlton Gateway to the Community Forest Path can be found in Crossing Boundaries 1: Out from the centre.

Some paths seem more inviting than others and lead to treasure beyond the imagination.  – photo copyright MyOpus

Painting from 홍지윤

Não há verbo de amor que eu já não tenha te dito

Nem voto de amizade que eu não tenha vertido

E mesmo assim

Só a distância te trouxe pra perto de mim. 

Dei-te poderes por ti indeferidos

Cruzei minh’alma

Atravessei meus pântanos

Atentei jogos de erros e acertos

Por ti, nunca deflagrados.

Sinto que sou eu mesma, mas também um outro alguém,

Alguém esculpido nos amargores e nas doçuras

De um amor ao mesmo tempo vivo e fundamentalmente platônico.

Eu sou quem sempre fui e sou quem me tornei

E de um jeito torto porém definitivo

Eu sou uma mulher

Que amou um homem

A mesma ontológica mulher que ao longo de milênios de civilização

Amou o mesmo ontológico homem…

E por ser todas elas, cada uma delas,

Nem sou-me mais: sou apenas alguém que perfaz a ontologia

Que reside em histórias e habita as lendas

Que perpetuam no mundo os sonhos de amor.

Eu esgotei as ilusões calidamente, sem lástima

Gastei em ti alguns preciosos momentos, com satisfação

Adquiri um certo discernimento

Que ironicamente não saberia apontar

Mas que por labuta e devoção verdadeira fez-me mais forte.

A felicidade é uma dádiva não necessariamente abrangente

Mas ela não consegue me escapar.

Identifico-a em cada esquina, cada dobra, em toda cavidade,

E se ela não me é plena

Tampouco consegue me contornar.

Sou aparato que rebate, anteparo do espírito, instrumento da existência, insistência do ardor,

E se reconheço a tristeza, hóspede recorrente,

Dela também reconheço a medida do bom, a delícia do afável, 

A natureza em mim abençoada do medo corajoso,

Que rasga as carnes e sangra o sangue

Mantendo um coração latente e indisciplinado

Que não vai ser desperdiçadamente ressecado

Pela ausência de retribuição.

Eu aceito o que a vida me dá e isto não é conformismo. 

Quero mais: isto é fato;

Mas também quero os pequenos presentes,

Pois se há pérolas que são lançadas aos porcos

É porque há porcos capazes de apreciação.

Nem tudo são flores,

Nem todas são pérolas.

Eu sou um porco afeito de si.

There is no word of love I didn’t call

Nor vow of friendship I didn’t played

And even so

Only distance could bring you close.

I gave you powers you’ve denied

I went through my soul

I crossed my swamps

Attempted games of trial and error

For you, never consumed.

I feel like myself but also as someone else,

Someone built under bitters and sweets

Of a fundamentally platonic yet alive love.

I am the same and the one I became

And in a bent but definitive way

I’m a woman

Who loved a man

The same ontological woman who loved the same ontological man

Throughout civilization millennia.

Being all of them, each of them

I’m not myself anymore: I’m the one who walks the ontology

Who lives in story and resides on legends

The ones spreading over the world the dreams of love.

I’ve emptied my illusions warmly, no regrets

I’ve spent on you some precious moments, gladly

I’ve achieved some understanding

Which ironically I can’t point out

But out of labor and true devotion it made me stronger.

Happiness is a gift not necessarily wide

But it can’t escape from me.

I notice it in every corner, every fold, and all hollows,

And if it is not full in me

Neither is able to come around.

I’m a countering apparatus, spirits’ bulkhead, existence’s instrument, ardour’s instancy,

And if I acknowledge the sadness, applicant guest,

I also acknowledge its length of good, delight of kindness,

My innate blessing of courageous fear,

Tearing my flesh apart and bleeding my blood

Keeping a stubborn and latent heart

Refusing to be wastefully dried

For the absence of reply.

I take what life gives me and that’s not conformism.

I want more: that’s for a fact;

However I still want the small gifts,

For pearls are still cast before swine

It’s because some swine can relish.

Not everything is precious,

Not everyone is pearl.

I’m a swine fond of itself.

In the course of trying to negotiate FP306 from Bishport Avenue opposite Honey Garston Road to the City boundary, it struck us that the gate onto Bishport Avenue would be an ideal place to put an interpretative panel showing footpaths leading to the Community Forest Path, Chew Magna , Dundry etc. to create a Forest Gateway.

We named the gate St Andrew’s Forest Gateway after the 81^st (St Andrew’s) Bristol Scout Group, which has built across the definitive route of FP306, where it should join Bishport Avenue. This act of illegal building on a footpath is not really a problem, but the state of dereliction of the path is a serious bar to its use. This is a pity because the path extends the Malago Greenway, via Crox Bottom and Willmott Park to the Community Forest Path at East Dundry and thence to Chew Magna via St Andrew’s Parish Churchyard. This happy coincidence suggests that we might name this stretch of footpath the St Andrew’s Trail after St Andrew the Patron Saint of Fishermen.

From the point of view of the Friends of the Community Forest Path, a cleared path and a panel with a map is probably all that is required, in accordance with the aim of leading people out of the city into the countryside. But opening up the path would also present an opportunity to develop the scrubby area between the houses and the City Boundary as a proper Forest Gateway Site as defined in the “Forest of Avon Gateway Sites & Recreational Routes Strategy 2002”, which could attract funding.

Forest Gateway Sites

According to the strategy, there are five principles or criteria which should be taken into consideration before Gateway Sites are selected and funded.

These are:

1)      Location and accessibility

2)      Working with local communities

3)      Site potential to be a recreational amenity

4)      Providing for a range of people and interests

5)      Gateways and the Forest of Avon concept.

      1) Location and accessibility:

a)      Gateway sites should be close to where people live – St Andrew’s Gateway is within easy walking distance of thousands of homes.

b)      They should be linked to Greenways and Recreational routes. St Andrew’s Gateway is linked to the Malago Greenway on the urban side and the Community Forest Path and the Samaritan’s on the rural side

c)      It is also within an area of social exclusion which should make it a high priority area.

2)      Working with local communities

Forest Gateway Sites should involve local communities. The Hartcliffe and Withywood Community Partnership are planning to develop Dundry Slopes between the City Farm and Strawberry Lane. So it will be essential that they, together with the 81^st (St Andrew’s) Bristol Scouts are involved in any development of St Andrew’s Gateway.

3)      Site potential to be a recreational amenity

a)      The site beyond the gate is the area that would be a Forest Gateway Site according to the Forest of Avon. It certainly is an accessible site with a natural environment, but the land is derelict and areas of grassland have become choked by brambles. However, there is evidence of use by young people – not all of it positive. A tributary of the Malago/Pigeonhouse Stream provides sites for rope swings and informal play away from prying eyes. There is evidence of picnicking with small fires and (presumably) underage drinking.

b)      The Site Development Plan should build on these existing uses by young people with the help of the local scouts, who have a pivotal role in training young people in positive ways of using the site. Unnecessary barbed wire needs to be removed from the site and a programme of  safe litter collection needs to be encouraged. However, the site should not be made too safe. Picnic sites might be developed and a mountain bike trail, together with segregated routes for older people. However, it is essential that the needs of younger people are taken into account or no scheme will work.

4)      Providing for a variety of people and interests

a)      Access for all is a noble principle, but it is evident that it actually demands differentiated access. The site is on quite a severe slope so paths at the bottom of the slope need to be suitable for less active people, whilst paths higher up the hill can be more challenging. Graded paths provide for progression towards a healthier lifestyle.

b)      On-site information needs to make it clear for whom each path is suitable. However, interpretative panels are frequently vandalised in socially deprived areas, so it is important that they are kept up to date and are also available in protected sites, such as the Scout Hut, the Harriers,the Symes Community Building, local schools etc.

c)      It is important that routes outside the St Andrew’s Forest Gateway Site are clearly marked and have clear objectives. People using the site are unlikely to have experience or understanding of how the countryside works, so they will need clear objectives if they are to be welcome in the countryside at large. Townspeople are most likely to enter into conflict with rural landowners if they do not know where they are going. From a farmer’s point of view, the function of a Forest Gateway Site is to provide an expansion chamber, which can help to dissipate the urge to get out into the countryside. Any farmer who understands drainage will appreciate the need to keep channels clear so that the more adventurous can reach a return bus or a circular return route.

5)      Gateways and the Forest of Avon concept

The Forest of Avon Team identified the Malago Greenway as a potential Gateway Site, but it didn’t really work as an idea because the Greenway is broken up by Hartcliffe Way and it has no obvious links to the countryside. A Forest Gateway Site is supposed to be “a mechanism to focus on the provision for countryside access and recreation…especially in urban and urban fringe areas.” The St Andrew’s Forest Gate does the job much better than the Malago Greenway because it focuses on the original meaning of the word Forest, which derives from the Latin word foras which means out as in the answer to the question “Where are you going dear?” rather than on the job of planting trees.

As a way out of Hartcliffe Withywood into the countryside, the St Andrew’s Forest Gateway and Trail satisfies the goal of the Community Forest Path in leading people out of the city into the countryside. At the same time, it activates the Malago Greenway as a means of achieving the same aim by building on the popular annual walks to the sources of the Malago.

On our second attempt to catch a breathtaking sunrise at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, we had a bad case of deja-vu as the sun once again failed to break through the clouds for several hours after sunrise.  All this despite my iPhone telling me that it was partly cloudy as I pulled into the park at 6am.

This time we made things a little more interesting by choosing a spot on the far side of Enchanted Rock, past Moss Lake.  The idea was to catch the sun rising above Enchanted Rock, with reflections into Moss Lake.  This entailed a brisk hike along Echo Canyon trail, racing against the clock to get into position before the sun crested above the Rock.  We found an excellent spot on the side of the lake, although by excellent I am referring to the view, not the ergonomics.  Tree branches encroached on our spot like an evil child with a poker.

But just like last time, the best pictures of the day came while we were waiting for the sun to show up.  When the sun was very low on the horizon, well behind the Rock, its light reflected off of the thick clouds and onto Moss Lake.  This is probably the thinnest the clouds were during the first two hours after sunrise.  My wife took this picture with a 16-35mm zoom at f/22 on a Canon 50D.

Enchanted Rock and Moss Lake at Dawn I

What made the scene so interesting is the pink light on the lake.  It  looked like rose gold, and played beautifully with the water plants at the edge of the lake, forming sharp contrasts of both color and intensity.  I pulled out the 180mm macro and took several shots of the water plants close to the edge.  This shot was taken at 180mm at f/22 on a Canon 1Ds Mark III.

Water Plants at Dawn

We spent over an hour sitting at the edge of the lake, as the temperature dropped and the wind picked up.  I had just cooled off from the brisk hike moments before, but now I could feel my core temperature dropping.  My wife pulled out an emergency blanket from the medical kit and we waited out the wind and cold wrapped up like refugees.

A few other oddities popped up as we hiked around the area, including this strange muddy stream.  This shot was taken with a 24-70mm at f/16 on a Canon 1Ds Mark III.

Mud Flows

As we made our way back to the original path, we crossed through the Moss Lake primitive camping area.  A number of small, unmarked paths wandered off from the main path.  This colorful path was well marked by tree roots and stones.  Image was taken with a 16-35mm at f/22 on a Canon 50D.

Root and Rock Path

Overall, the trip was worth the 4am wakeup call.  One good image is worth a night of lost sleep.  I also find it interested that the best pictures always happen in the first hour after sunrise.  It seems like the keeper rate goes from 80% to 10% in a very short amount of time.  The adage about shooting during the golden hours is still some of the best advice around.

Variações de felicidades são tão díspares quão numerosas são as pessoas.

Poderia eu encontrar  entre elas alguma sinonímia?

Sento-me numa sólida rocha sob o farfalhar das folhas de outono,

Ladeada por murmúrios de um córrego,

E a verdade óbvia e adormecida de que não há silêncio no mundo

- apenas quietude -

Instala em mim uma felicidade exaustivamente versada

Infinitamente cantada em cinco mil anos de civilização.

Minhas palavras, normalmente bradadas, 

Avisam-me a urgência da pena

Pois que desejam partilhar, do momento,

a quietude mas também a evanescência.

Onde difere esta felicidade,

tão exígua e sazonal, 

Daquela pela qual nutrimos um delicado desespero?

Uma felicidade perene, compulsória,

Que abrande as nossas perdas e amplifique os nossos êxitos?

Hoje eu olha a Coréia e vejo

Um povo que me abastece em milhões de retóricas.

Não percebo um momento, um instante, uma fração

Onde nossas felicidades se esbarrem…

Há neles uma inferência pelo contido,

E o sublimado,

Que esvazia em mim qualquer viés de reciprocidade.

Restam dúvidas e abismos nunca transpostos

Da excelência ou desabono do Eu.

Contudo,

Em uma sólida rocha além da brecha

Entre o ciciar de folhas e os murmúrios de um rio

Há uma felicidade soberanamente coreana

Que não hesita em me invadir.

Variations of happiness are many as many are the people.

Could I find some resemblance among them?

I sit over a solid rock beneath the whistle of autumn leaves

Sided by the muttering of a stream

And the obvious and numb truth which there’s no silence in the world

- only stillness -

Settles inside me a thoroghly versed happiness 

Immensely tuned along five thousand years of civilization.

My words,  usually shouted,

Warn me about a pen’s urgency

Towards the wish of sharing the moment

In its quietness and also evanescence.

Where does this happiness differ,

So brief and seasonal,

From the one we nurture within a delicate despair?

An everlasting happiness, compulsory,

To diminish our losses and amplify our outcomes?

Today I look over Korea and I see

A People that fills me a thousand rhetorics.

I can’t point a moment, an instant, a glimpse

Where our happiness touch each other…

They have an illation for the held back,

And the sublimate,

Which empties in me any ounce of reciprocity.

Doubts and never crossed abysses remain

Onto excellence or discredit of the Self.

However,

Over a solid rock beyond the bridge

Between leaves’ rustles and a river’s sough

There is a happiness sovereingly Korean

Which has no hesitation in striking me down.