Word To Use Today: Waldeinsamkeit.

The woods start thirty feet from here.

It contains no very dangerous animals. Nothing bigger than a deer, or fiercer than a fox (except perhaps a man).

You could poison yourself if you tried:

yew berries

but you'd have to try quite hard.

England has one venemous snake, the adder, but no one's died from adder bite in Britain since 1975. People have died from bee stings, though.

Waldeinsamkeit is the feeling of being alone in the woods and connected to nature.

A wood surrounds you with nature. No, really, it surrounds you: there'll be a million busy ants and beetles under your feet, and the lithe branches of the trees woven over your head.

Even the air will be full of midges (no, do try to be positive about them. They're nature!)*

Waldeinsamkeit is a German word, but the Greeks also had a word for the feeling you get when walking in a wood. It's different from the German Waldeinsamkeit, but it acknowledges the power of being inside the great breathing, watching beast that is the natural world.

What is it?

Panic.

Enjoy your walk on the wild side, do...

Word To Use Today: Waldeinsamkeit. This word is German. Wald means wood, and Einsamkeit means solitude or loneliness.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a poem called Waldeinsamkeit. Here's a verse:

Cities of mortals woe-begone
Fantastic care derides,
But in the serious landscape lone
Stern benefit abides.

As you can see, it's not all that good.

*Oh all right, perhaps that is a bit much to ask.