There may be a few more walking based posts than usual until things open out again....as I'm still working this time round and we have limited options for what we do on a social basis, walking is my activity of choice. I love it and am delighted by what I keep coming across here within my locality.
This time I was in St Leonard's forest with my friend WW. The woods are local to her and we spent a glorious three hours just wandering up any path that took our fancy and getting lost basically. It all adds a bit of excitement to the proceedings and with the beautiful sunshine I wasn't in any hurry to get back to GBT and do my jobs😆 Top up the old vitamin D for free whenever you get the chance I say.
The wood gets it name from the 6th century French Saint Leonard who happened to be hanging around this part of the Wealden forest for reasons unknown [it's sounding more plausible by the moment]. To pass the time he slew the resident dragon which was giving the villagers a bit of trouble and in the process accidentally cut himself. Saint's blood is potent stuff and where it fell supposedly lily of the valley now grows. As a reward Leonard got to banish all the snakes and silence all the nightingales so that his prayers wouldn't be disturbed by their singing. Actually I'm not sure Leonard really did fulfill his promise if the discovery below is anything to go by......as they say best let sleeping dragons lie so we tiptoed past and made our way on. The legend may possibly be an echo of a hermitage that might once have existed within the wood.
The true version is that we bravely sat on the bench and cracked open our flasks of tea.....life is very rock 'n' roll these days, but I had a ball.
Arilx
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I love that bench! I too would have had to sit on it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am not sure that I like Leonard. To silence the nightingales' praises to raise his own seems like a crap thing to do.
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