Take a woods walk with me🌳🚶♀️➡️ (№1)
- Jordan Thomas
- Dec 19, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 9
(All picture & videos here were taken by me,
slowly and without planning, during my woods walk.)
Through the woods
Castle Pill Woods is shaped by movement.
The paths follow the land as it dips and curves,
and water is never far away. Small streams run through the woods,
crossing under paths and threading between the trees.
You hear them before you see them - steady, constant, never fully quiet.
The ground shifts as you walk. Leaf litter softens the path,
roots rise through the soil, and everything feels worn in rather than arranged.
The woods carry the marks of use without losing their calm.
Water on the move
Most of the water here doesn’t stop.
Streams carry rainwater down through the woodland,
splitting and rejoining as they go.
One continues on toward Black-bridge Beach,
linking the woods directly to the coast beyond.
There’s a sense of direction to it all.
The water is always going somewhere.
Deadman’s Lake
The movement slows only in one place.
Deadman’s Lake sits lower than the surrounding paths,
where the water gathers and settles.
Compared to the streams, the stillness is noticeable.
The surface reflects branches and sky, disturbed only occasionally.
This is the only point in the woods where the water pauses.
There’s no sign explaining the name and no clear written record
of how it came to be called Deadman’s Lake.
The name appears to exist through local use
rather than documentation - something remembered rather than recorded.
Oak leaf and ferns
On the forest floor, the details stand out.
A fallen oak leaf, dry and brown, rests among damp earth and moss.
Around it, bright green ferns spread low across the ground,
fresh and full, softening the edges of roots and stones.
The contrast is striking: what has fallen beside what is still growing.
Nothing here feels out of place.
A quiet moment in the trees
With the water running and the woods settled,
smaller movements begin to show themselves.
A robin sits nearby, red chest bright against
the muted browns and greens.
It boldly stays put, as if allowing us to admin.
There’s no urgency, just presence.
It’s a small moment,
but one that tends to stay with you longer than expected.
Walking back out
The paths eventually rise and straighten.
The sound of streams fades, replaced by distant traffic and voices.
The woods thin, and the edges of the town begin to show through the trees.
Castle Pill Woods doesn’t make a spectacle of itself.
It’s defined by movement, pauses, and small details
that only show up when you’re paying attention.
Before you go..
If you take anything from this walk, let it be this:
you don’t need to go far to notice something real.
Whether it’s a patch of woods near home,
a path you’ve walked a hundred times,
or a place you’ve never really paid attention to before -
slow down enough to see it. Notice what’s moving,
what’s fallen, what’s watching quietly from the edges.
You don’t have to understand a place for it to matter.
You just have to be present with it.
Step outside when you can. Wander without a plan.
Let the land meet you where you are.
This way of noticing close to home also shows up in even a street walk counts.
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