Tomorrow I leave for Australia.

My bag is nearly packed and I've still a million things to do. Including a swim at the Quay and a walk through the Vale. I can't go without saying goodbye to the ocean and the oak tree that's been a constant companion to me over the past four years. A grand beast of a tree, the north side of its trunk covered in moss and ferns, verdant limbs spiralling up into the sky.

The stone is swaddled in bubble wrap and ready to go. The funny thing with leaving is that I've been posting parts of myself to Australia for more than a month now. Sending little imaginings ahead, planting the idea of myself and the migrating stone in Sydney. It's good to do this, it's preparation, a good tilling of the soil I'm about to set foot upon.

I'll be gone for a month. Which feels like a very long time. Still, this stone has been waiting patiently for three years already to be taken to its new home and the time is now good and right.