Category: Times and Seasons
Reeling in some leap years
27th February 2020 There was a series on Irish television called "Reeling in the Years" where each program covered happenings in a certain year in the past using archive footage. The concept may not have been all that original though the focus of Irish events gave it a certain uniqueness. It was the sort of light television programming that could be repeated endlessly should a vacant slot need occupying.
Of course, that is not how I tend to view the entries on here and I often struggle to complete a trip report as I have been doing for a while with a day spent along Derbyshire's Great Ridge in the autumn of 2017. Sometimes, what should produce a timely report can gain the feel of an archive item.
Nevertheless, 2020 is a leap year and a very rainy, snowy and windy February gains an extra day; it is hard to believe that we were basking in unseasonably warm sunshine just over a year ago. Perhaps, it is little wonder then that I often state that we get weather instead of seasons and such is the defining characteristic of a maritime climate.
January and February often are the quieter months of the year so there is some time for looking back and a little forward planning. Thus, I take this opportunity to cast my mind back over leap years from a outdoor wandering vantage point since that stops me at 2000 when I commenced my working life after formal education.
By 2004, my pedestrian hill wandering had come into being with Scotland being a major focus along with England and Wales. The year itself was terrible from a weather standpoint with the summer being a washout. Only some flexibility at work allowed me to snatch a drier interlude to go north to Lorn and Lochaber to make the most of a fleeting opportunity.
2008 then was the third calendar year for this blog and saw a high point in my Scottish rambling. Until very recently, a week in August spent among some of the Western Isles became my most adventurous escapade ever. Skye was a staging point and I managed to avoid much of the rain that came from a stalled front lying across Ireland, England and Scotland. It now seems surreal that there was some glorious weather to be enjoyed on Harris, Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist.
The occasional good fortune of those islands again manifested itself in 2012 when they in fact endured a drought while the the rest of Britain has the wettest summer ever. It was only the dryness of the Outer Hebrides that stopped the year going down in records as being wetter than in 2000, a year that I hardly regard as being that rainy at all though there were autumn deluges. The differences in weather were missed in 2012, not only because of a certain weather myopia but also because the heavy workload of 2011 had drained me to the point that energy for planning a return to the Western Isles just was not there.
By 2016, major changes were taking place in my life after the passing of both my parents. These were becoming evident in 2012 and the combination of a busy working life and ongoing inheritance works became enough to break me. One saving grace was that I started exploring elsewhere in Europe and that began in 2015. 2016 saw an extended weekend spent in each of Austria and Norway while there also was a mid-winter break in Mallorca. It was the latter than really taught me a lesson with a heavy cold and the others might have been but palliative care for an ongoing malaise. Changes were coming.
As I look back, it is tempting to think that leap years are not always the best for me though I now reckon that they were not as bad as I might have thought them at the time. 2020 could prove no different but that remains to be seen. Changes are continuing and I now work for myself so overseas and other excursions can continue alongside the other things that need doing. Only time will show what chances are available.
Into the 2020’s
1st January 2020 2019 had its share of preoccupations, both political and professional, and I did get out and about more during the first half of the year than the second. Weather had its part in that as much as those aforementioned preoccupations but the dividing line appears to be my trip to British Columbia in July. That also needed recovery from jet lag together with financial restoration.
Before all that, there were numerous trips to Yorkshire and Scotland between February and May. The Yorkshire outings took me around Settle and Malham after a visit to the North York Moors near Great Ayton. Easter was spent around Edinburgh with excursions to Linlithgow, Peebles and Penicuik getting me out into more natural surroundings on a sunny weekend that rather spoiled me. Subsequent return visits in May even featured a return to Stirling as well as another stopover in Linlithgow.
The Canadian trip was the highlight though and my base in Vancouver allowed for plenty of exploration around the city itself as well as fitting in side trips to North Vancouver, Squamish and Vancouver Island. The introduction was so thorough that I struggle to think of an excuse to return and there should be plenty of those as long as I figure out how to spend time on any associated long flights.
To some, 2020 is not when the new decade begins but popular opinion is not awaiting 2021. For me too, a certain wistfulness has descended and I look back to 2000 when I began my career and 2010 when I changed jobs. The 2010's have been life changing too and unwanted political developments to come in 2020 will bring more change. For that reason, I am not planning very much and will see how the year goes.
It this was 1990 or 2000, my sentiments would be more optimistic since that was the world view at the time. However, all that has dissipated and popular dissatisfaction is causing all sorts of upheaval. Throughout all this, it is important to keep a sense of perspective so it is likely that sunny days will lure me out of doors like the last days of 2019. After all, my late mother left me with a constant desire never to waste bursts of sunshine.
We appear to live in a time when making one's own new happy experiences is never more needed and then there is the necessity to share them. Distractions in 2019 have lengthened the trip report backlog though I am writing one at the moment. As I now look to 2020, that motivation is one that feels sound even if I largely will let the opportunities come to me. Then, less of them get wasted and more stories are there to be told. If a few are uplifting too, that will be even better.
Endings
10th December 2019 For one reason or another, it feels as if many things are coming to an end at the moment. Clearly, we are coming to the end of a year and some would say that it also is the end of a decade, while others suggest that there is another year left in the current one. As if that is not enough, Virgin Trains no longer operate on the West Coast Mainline, so that is another change that adds an end of era feel. There is also a wider unwanted political changeover in the offing too, and that brings an even bigger ending.
For me, an ongoing work contract is coming to an end while other possibilities are being explored for 2020. That has weighed on me heavily this autumn, so I have not been out and about as much as in other years. The appetite for countryside wandering has abated for now; uncertainty is ahead of me.
Nevertheless, there have been urban visits to Bath, Oxford, Edinburgh and Sheffield, all day trips, together with several days at a conference in Amsterdam. There, the weather was inclement, but we were indoors most of the time anyway, and it was useful to meet old colleagues, catch up with what is happening in an industry and necessarily discuss opportunities for next year.
Given the current situation, I am not embarking on a mid-winter getaway this year, so the Christmas and New Year break may not see me straying far from home. Having some time for reflection and recuperation will prove useful anyway, and I hope to get out and about should the weather allow that, since it has not been all that encouraging these last few months. It is all too easy to let grey days bring wistfulness, so a new start during next year is in order. Only time will tell what that means.
A loss of interest?
1st September 2019 Recent weather probably should have had me out and about, but other things have been weighing on my mind instead. Current political uncertainty is among these, as is the impact that my summertime trip to Canada had on my finances. Sorting them out is as much a priority as sorting out how my work arrangements might look in 2020. Thoughts of taking a longer stretch of time away from client work to develop the details are appealing ones.
Aside from a reluctance to embark on trips away from home, the effect on my relish for reading also is being felt. Currently, I am working my way through Christopher Somerville's The January Man. This should be precisely the type of gentle reading that allows a break from the troubles of the world, but it appears to reveal a lack of enthusiasm for exploring the British landscape, so is it because I might be after new pastures? That is a thought to hold as I explore what world events might mean for me.
It probably also is opportune to survey the breadth of what I have been reading this year. Some have made for difficult reading, and this set includes an anthology of writing about Nepal that includes content from La.Lit magazine together with Dan Jones' The Templars. There has been uplifting reading too, with Alastair McIntosh's Soil and Soul being among them while contemplating a business proposal that could have deflected me from my own intentions. In the end, I rejected the latter in order to maintain the independence that I want to retain; saying no was a difficult thing for me to do.
All the while, there are trip reports that awaiting writing and photo galleries to be created or updated. As the hours of daylight shorten, there may be time for those much-needed diversions from news watching. There even may be scope for daylight wandering if I could lessen the weight that is dampening my spirit before a change of year provides even more of a release.
Logjam
3rd July 2019 One I feature a trip report for an overseas trip on here, chances are that urban strolling gets mixed in with rural hiking. Separating the two has a habit of feeling very wrong even when the the countryside explorations are subsets of what else occupied me. The comment applies as equally to Swedish explorations as much as they do to Aberdonian ones. It might be tempting to move the urban activities into my Travel Jottings and leave the shorter incursions into more more natural surroundings for here but it just feels like I am doing the whole task a disservice so they all end up here instead.
That has its consequences and the Swedish trip report was the cause of getting in the way of adding other content on here. After all, the trip was a six day affair and writing up each day would have proved challenging on its own but I left the whole lot go together. With overseas outings always likely to combine urban and rural, that conundrum is likely to remain but there may be chances for a split just as well. An Easter sojourn in Edinburgh could lend itself to such division and they are some ideas in my mind for purely urban explorations just as well. It all depends on how I feel about things at the time.
Another outcome of the uncomfortable juxtaposition of walking around built-up and wilder areas is that I decided on a name change to cover what is here that little bit better. After all, all my walking and cycling takes me out-of-doors so Outdoor Excursions is now the name you find at the top until I find something else or get in the mood for a change.
As it happens, there have been a few names for this place over the years and Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer still feels the best even it now longer fits the style of the rest of the website. Maybe, it can return as a strapline even if I mix up the destinations for my wanderings these days. What will not alter is the intended focus on celebrating quality time in more natural surroundings while a better name might come to mind.
