Redrawing the Map

This photograph may not look very much but it represents a bit of an adventure. My house is built into the side of quite a steep hill, and so when you come out of the back door you ascend some steps to the garden. The gradient rises gently towards the bottom end (if it makes sense to have a bottom end which is higher than the top end), but if you turn left and cross in front of the pond you then climb even higher to a sort of dell surrounded by laurel bushes and trees. This is where the stump of the great eucalyptus which had to be felled in 2018 stands. 

To one side of this clearing is a rough area of ivy beneath a variety of trees - a couple of hazels, a sycamore, what might be a sickly elm (of course there are no other kinds). This is where, in my dreams, I locate the next folly, The Ruin (or Swanvale Halt Castle), the construction of which that little Gothic window you can see in the photo is awaiting. Beyond that is a rotten fence which warns you that you are approaching the precipitous and almost sheer drop down to the road. It wouldn't actually stop you falling, but it would give you advance notice of your headlong demise. 

Today amid the raindrops - the first, delicious rain we've had in mid-Surrey for quite a while - I ventured into this area to clear some of the ivy. One of my other schemes has been to construct a Zigzag Path which will lead from the summit of the hill here down in the direction of the road, if that's at all practical, so after cutting some of the ivy I investigated the fence and the area around it. I became aware that the fence leads further in the direction of the house, and the flat plateau is much larger than I realised. In fact, that area of the summit runs at least ten feet through a variety of bushes before it reaches the drop onto the stone-walled terrace next to the path around the house. In theory I knew there must be something in that area, but I had no clear idea what was under the trees there.

This is not the first time the garden has sprung a surprise on me; it was in my third year here that I discovered the Secret Corner. But it's been ten years and eight months now. Surely there's nothing else left to find within this not-very-large space?

I was wondering, as I looked around the wet undergrowth, what to do with it. Unwittingly, on being told about my find, Ms Trollsmiter came up with the answer: 'Narnia awaits!' she said. It is crying out for a lamp-post, isn't it?