A wonderful walk today from Southampton to Eastleigh along the Itchen Way: sun and clouds and a cool air. It's a regular of mine -  an old friend that always gives the odd surprise: a bird calling a single peal of notes with descending pitch (what was it?!!); the sudden changes of environment from scattered remnants of trees over the stream, to the edge of neat grazing land ... I recalled an older friend (from circle dancing) whom I once encountered on a nearby path, and whom, much later, saw in the distance walking the other way alongside the Itchen river. She may well be no more now.