1st Feb.

Early morning walk through the forest with Linda and Ianto.  They go for a walk together before breakfast every morning.  Ianto pointed out huge myrtle, or bay laurel trees, covered in moss, their aromatic leaves, a Douglas Fir 'nurse' stump, from a tree felled in 1910, vivid red coral cup fungi, growing on myrtle fallen dead wood and prolific foliose lichens.  He knows the dry spots where you can stash bits of wood to sit on as a little bench, across from a waterfall, 'the best church'.  He greeted a particular maple, with a branch span of ~100ft.  He pointed out the changes he has seen in the forest over the 20 years he was been walking in this valley, and explained a huge silt-filled basin, now grown over, a consequence of a logging technique of the early 1900s.  The creek was dammed, then released, with hundreds of floating logs, to flow and crash their way down to the town.  Cheap transport, hugely destructive, and since made illegal. 

Back to the cob cottage for breakfast, then helping Linda move various things in the new cob build that'll become the new kitchen.  She broke her arm a couple of months ago, so I was trying to be as helpful as possible, carrying and lifting things. 

I love this place.  If I was American, I'd be moving here in an instant.  It functions as a demonstration site for teaching natural building and sustainable living, a place for sharing knowledge, housing apprentices and various folk, and also home for Ianto and Linda. 

Goodbyes...  After feeling indebted to people's kindness, there's a certain freedom in being just me and the bike, on the road again that I was ready for, and I have plenty to think about. 

I've been on my cycling adventure for a month now.  This time last month I was lying at the side of the road, wondering if it'd be okay to go straight back home.  Several hundreds of miles north, and it feels like I've come a long way.