Trail mark

As I tucked these two buzzard feathers behind an ivy tendril on  a stone gatepost I was reminded of the Romani trail marks my father used to leave for my mother and me as we trudged home from the village. 
The route back to our cottage started by dipping down to an ancient stone bridge over the Grwyne Fechan, then a steep path 'up through the wood' rugged and arduous for small legs, followed by two uphill fields (between which was the curious sight of some bags of cement that had been left in the open and had turned rock hard). Finally across a stone stile into the rough lane that took us back home. My father met us to carry the shopping bags or the paraffin can but first he would have left a series of trail markers, to distract me from the tiring trek I suppose. Just tiny clues that we were on the right path - you needed sharp eyes to recognise them: a broken twig, two stones one on top of the other, a couple of twigs forming an arrow. These inconspicuous tweaks to the landscape have been long used by people who wanted to fade into the background yet  needed to leave signs for others wise to the practice. Forget about Satnav,  keen eyes and ears (and noses too) were all that would be required.
This list of trail marks gives an idea of what I mean.