Three wooded reserves in one day! Glapthorn, Short Wood and Southwick Wood.
I knew we were set for a treat when the first thing we heard as we got out of the car at Glapthorn was the cronk of a raven! There were three of them. We saw them, briefly, and listened to them call each other across the wood.
Mischa had brought soup and I did the navigating. That was fine as we walked through Glapthorn to Short and through Short to Southwick... my favourite... but once there I turned us in ever increasing circles as the sun edged toward the horizon. I was starting to feel a little achy and when I realised we'd passed a certain glade forty minutes earlier and that the walk back to the car, once I found the way out of the wood would take at least forty-five minutes, I felt a little tiny bit worried. Mischa wasn't complaining... especially as I sort of made light of the lost-ness and distance... I started imagining a kind person who'd give us a lift back where we'd parked.
At that point, we met a nice man who, without much prompting, kindly offered two very muddy women a ride in his car. Mischa hesitated. I thought she didn't want to impose, and that's true, but she was also worrying about the possibility of kidnap and murder. Not me. I was looking at his films of birds and doing a multiple choice to work out his job. The man was a little bemused by our mixed energies and nearly drove into an SUV but we got back to the reliable Mimir and headed home.
This is a sign of how Mischa and I imagine differently. She, always observant, spotted a large bone high on a tree.

She immediately thought of The Blair Witch Project while I was considering either shamans or jaguars.
It was a lovely day. No rain, though the ground was waterlogged (as were Mischa's boots). We saw some great and characterful trees.
Mischa fell in love with some maples and I got obsessed by the close ups of bark and holes and moss and little water features!
The only bad thing was seeing four dead badgers on the journey.
Do you know why the badgers were dead?