Out Come the Wolves

       In Britain, we have 'ancient' paths that have survived into the modern day through constant use, or sometimes conversion into roads or other modernisation. I've written about roads in this series before, but though more explicitly about paths as I took a hungover walk on a loop along a river and through a woodland. The river path had recently been completely flooded, and was now laid bare of the usual vegetation alongside, and some mud and sediment deposited here and there. There was also evidence of human repair; a little barrier tape or fencing, material moved from where the flood had dumped it, and gravel filling in holes. The woodland path on the loop back was much simpler than the sand, gravel and occasional tarmac of the river path; just a dirt path on a terraced bit of slope in among the trees- but noticeably flattened through use, compacted underfoot. it made me think of the Gaelic word bánóg, "a patch of ground levelled out by years of dancing."*...