Curtain
Activity: Make haste to the woods.
Pack our bags, lock the door and make haste to the woods
up·stage vt 2. to move toward the back of the stage in order to force another actor to turn his or her back to the audience
adv in, at, or toward the rear part of a stage

Upon our arrival, we will go for a walk, pausing on the footbridge to take in the view.

Walk
Activity: Take a walk
The journey begins from Sydenham Hill Station looking for rare insects, birds such as nuthatch, green woodpecker and elusive woodland mammals. Cox’s Walk is an old oak-lined path at the eastern edge of Sydenham Hill Wood that supports over 200 species of plants.


Activity: Contemplate the view from the bridge in Sydenham Hill Wood.
We will cast our gaze down the abandoned railway track towards the boarded-up railway tunnel, where trains have stopped running.
na·ture n
9.the natural and original condition of humankind, as distinguished from a state of grace.

Hide
Activity: Hide.
Finding ourselves in unfamiliar territory, we will hide and record conditions on the ground.
Activity: Record conditions on the ground.
We will make a collection of specimens from the wood.
na·ture n
7.the appearance or aspect of a person, place, or thing that is considered to reflect reality

Tree
Activity: Declassification. We will find a plant and take its name.
Since 1958, when the houses in the area were knocked down, many exotic species have taken hold. Alongside native species such as oak, and greater stichwort there are monkey-puzzle, rhododendrons, and a cedar of Lebanon. A rose is a rose, by any other name.

Sycamore predominates in the woodland, with sporadic oak, horse chestnut, ash and hawthorn and a dense under story, including elder and privet.

Science classifies living things in an orderly system through which they can be readily identified. Plants can be ordered from the more primitive to the more advanced to reflect the plant kingdom. Botanists name a plant to give it a unique place in the biological world, as well as to clarify its relationships within that world. Classification is sometimes difficult - nature is not fixed and plants, like humans, are capable of change, varying for reasons that elude us.

na·ture n
8.a basic state of existence, untouched and uninfluenced by civilization

… in ruins… we will keep our eyes peeled, wandering beneath the shady rowan, oak and beech, and near a ruin find a place to build a house.

Home
Activity: build a house
We will make a house for birds, filled with seeds. Later a beautiful song will resound in the woods, an anthem of sorts.

Extract
Activity: Bury Treasure
Once we have made a determination of conditions on the ground we may or may not bury treasure.
na·ture n
3.the countryside or the environment in a condition relatively unaffected by human activity or as the home of living creatures other than human beings.

Activity: Look for a frog.
Frogs are good indicators of the environment. Amphibians breathe through their skin, their bodies are vulnerable and sensitive to habitat destruction, because they live at the meeting of two environments - land and water.
na·ture n
1.the physical world including all natural phenomena and living things

The wood is home to plants including wild garlic, early dog violet and bugle. A mass of fungi, guelder roses, water mint, ash keys next to spiky stands of exotic bamboo left over from one of the Victorian gardens.

Flag
Activity: Plant a flag.
We will plant a flag at an empty pond and place nearby a ball of golden cedar.

na·ture n
4.a type or sort of thing.
ex·ot·ic adj
1.strikingly unusual and often very colourful and exciting or suggesting distant countries and unfamiliar cultures
2.introduced from another place or region
n
somebody who or something that is exotic, especially a plant or animal
en·dan·gered adj
in danger or at risk, especially of ceasing to exist
flag1 n 12. the tail of a deer
vt
3.to mark something, for example, a page or a place, in order to draw attention to it
4.to draw somebody’s attention to something
8.to attract the attention or curiosity of wild game by waving something

Stone’s throw
Activity: Place a golden ball
na·ture n
5.the intrinsic or essential character of somebody or something

Name
Activity: Write your name discreetly in the sand.
na·ture n
10.the patterns of behavior or the moral standards that are considered to be universally found and recognized among human beings

Song
Activity: sing a song
na·ture n
6.disposition or temperament in a person

Fire
Activity: Set off a celebratory Firework.
We will set off a small celebratory firework and discretely write our names in the sand.

Activity: Leave shoes. When we leave the woods we will take off our shoes and leave them behind so that when we return home they are not destroyed, as is customary.

Activity: Get new shoes.
na·ture n
11.the inherited genetic material that partly determines the behavior, character, and structure of an organism, as opposed to what is learned from experience or the environment.

Activity: Return to the city, unlock the door and unpack our bags.