The confusion of forest

There’s a part of the Arboretum that’s wilder than the rest of it. There’s probably several but the one I’ve found is as you cross Bussey by the South Street gate. Follow the path and veer off to the left and you’ll go uphill into a maze of paths heading in all directions. You can see some of the work of the arborists - trees felled and new ones planted - but it seems less managed than other areas. You can wander here, on paths criss-crossing one another, exploring the impressive boulders or looking for critters in the undergrowth.

It creates a different mood than my more usual walk around Peters Hill. It feels slightly wild, slightly more conducive to the whims and needs of the natural world of plants and animals. As I walked here, not lost but not knowing exactly where I was, I could imagine tramping here 50 or 100 years ago, somehow ignoring the sounds of cars. It’s a place for a reverie of how the land has been used over the centuries.

I walked for some time, aimlessly, and came out on Hemlock Hill, more familiar territory. It was an journey of transition - from familiar to less familiar, from less to more cultivated. Another of the Arb’s blessings!