I was on the road by 8.30 weaving through the school rush hour and passing some fine municipal buildings on the way.

It took a good hour to get beyond the city limits, and then another half hour of not very pleasant road walking to get to the Foret Domainal de Chateauroux. This is, by English standards a huge wooded area of predominantly oak forest, criss-crossed by roads and paths.

My route took me the length of it. Near the start were a few dog walkers, cyclists and runners, but the further I got the quieter it became. 

French forest management is very active, as I observed in May. Areas are felled, the logs laid out for collection, and then areas are reafforested.

Here is a recently felled area, and here,

one that was felled some time ago. You can see several years’ growth on the new trees, and only a few logs waiting to be collected – all tagged with a lot number.

Right in the heart of the forest I found a clearing, and in it a chapel

Notre Dame du Chène (Our Lady of the Oak). The chapel is used once a year for Mass still, on St Hubert’s day in October. 

I stopped and said prayers for Philip and others, the pressed on.

I got to Velles for lunch and found a good cafe. I took my time and then set out for my destination for tonight. Again I was directed through deserted woodland and saw no one at all until I got to my digs at 4pm. I had a rest, reorganised myself, and have had my supper. 

Everyone talks about the benefits of woodland walking these days, and it true. There is nothing quite like being surrounded by huge living creatures that are hundreds of years old. But we are less aware of the communication network that trees have, aided by fungi – what some are calling the micorrhizal network. See here for more information:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/#:~:text=Trees%20share%20water%20and%20nutrients,Scientists%20call%20these%20mycorrhizal%20networks.

So I wondered about the symbiosis of forest maintenance by humans, felling and logging and reafforesting, and using the priceless timber, as it overlays a much more subtle, more ancient symbiosis, just one of which we blundering humans have been for centuries unaware. 

And then into it all has intruded the latest contortions by the Church of England to “manage” their problems with LGBT+ people. It all seems like the crassest and most unecological activity, which is blunderingly overlaying the most ancient and wonderful symbiosis of love, which, any fool knows, can blossom and grow in the most unlikely places and between people not at all like us, but which extends its tendrils of communication beyond any pair to build forests of communication, or, should I say, communion?

Goodnight and God bless you all.