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The Plan
This is the first of my new Friday posts on my trip planning. I don’t have a good name for what I want to achieve; it’s really intended to be more than a trip, but I’m not sure what else to call it....
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On Mendacious Self-Images
I think mendacious might be my word of the moment. Not because I am being mendacious, but I keep using it stories. I love how it sounds, as if it might mean something lovely, and then . . . it...
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Thinking at Three Miles an Hour
After many years of extremely desultory gym-attendance, I — well, I’m still attending the gym very desultorily. (Once last week, for instance.) But I also finally tried out the treadmill, and...
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Timelines . . .
I’m really not sure how the widget algorithm (over to the left) has created a four-month timeline for my trip. I guess I do math differently than it does; to me, there are five months between 21st...
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The Lure of Maps
The first week! Edinburgh (top left) to Lindisfarne and Berwick-upon-Tweed (right, where the border meets the sea) via Melrose along the St Cuthbert’s Way. The pink line is my prospective route. One of...
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Floraison for the first week of March
With the arrival of March, it definitely feels as if winter has started the turn to spring. There are the odd bulbs poking through in sheltered places, and the local birds have started their spring...
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The Picturesque
It is with some effort that I decided not to call this post “The Picturesque Procession of Palm Sunday — or, a meditation on the concept of alliteration” — largely because it’s not really about...
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Packing
I have been busy with the simultaneous challenges of the end of term and trying to pack my apartment while planning a major change in my life’s journey. I am currently at 29 boxes of books, with more...
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Preparations: Some Thoughts on Pragmatism
I have always felt most strongly drawn to Sam of all the characters in The Lord of the Rings; I think in many ways he is the hero of the story. But it is really because he is a gardener and a...
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The Beginning
I am writing this sitting in the Toronto airport, awaiting my flight to Australia. This is a marvellous thing to be able to say. It’s just over a month until I set off on the solitary English walking...
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The Penguin Parade of South-Eastern Australia
I’m afraid that for technical reasons I don’t have any of my own pictures to post on here, but once I’ve worked through that issue I’ll do my best to do a small photographic essay covering the first...
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Helpful Signs in Australia
The last few days have been a heady mix of jet lag, unpacking from Australia, re-packing for England, some final efforts at planning, bookings, purchases, and also trying to finish two ongoing projects...
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Edinburgh!
Tomorrow is when the adventure proper begins, with a walk into the Blue. Yesterday I spent travelling, and today I wandered around Edinburgh contemplating Past Victoria’s folly and enjoying Present...
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Week One: The Tenderfoot (Sunday 24th June to Saturday 29th June)
My general impression of England, or at least Northumberland, and those 12 miles of Scotland through which I walked last Sunday, is that it is in bloom: Days walked: five Distance walked: 80.5 miles,...
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Week Two: First Helpx Experience
I have to say my week on a small sheep farm in the Scottish Borders was not at all what I was expecting, and not only because the sheep didn’t make an appearance until Thursday. No; I wasn’t expecting...
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Week Three: Inland Northumberland
After my lovely week in East Lothian, I headed by bus to Newcastle. This may seem slightly out of the way, but there is one stretch of the St Oswald’s Way with only one place of accommodation, and...
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Over Hill . . .
Well! I’ve been busy gardening for the last week, and in the other parts of my time catching up on reading novels (mostly silly ones) and working on my current story, which was intended to be a...
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Floraison for the Last Week of August
I have an unfinished post on the Dales Way, the Ribble Way, and a few other bits and bobs, but really, all I can say is that August got a bit away from me. I have been busy visiting family and family...
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Zucchini Time!
I always find it a bit strange when the seasons correspond with the calendar. This year, I took the train from north Wales to Shropshire on the first of September — and with the new month came...
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