Category: Times and Seasons
A busy spring
31st May 2019 The continuing non-availability of Northern train services on Saturdays due to industrial action became such a source of personal confinement that their restoration produced such a dramatic effect. From February until now, I have been away most weekends, making use of the increased opportunities for train travel. The promising weather helped too, even if it meant that water supplies were not getting replenished as required after last summer's extended spell of hot and dry weather.
The result was that Yorkshire got a lot of attention throughout February and March. It started with a visit to the North York Moors on a sunny day in February that felt more like summer than the actual time of year. Roseberry Topping was revisited, as well as nearby hills, as I traced out part of the Cleveland Way on a circuit centred on Great Ayton's Train station.
Other circuits were followed by train as dictated by the extent of day ranger ticket areas. Two of these took me between Leeds and Carlisle, so it might have been inevitable that I ended up getting ideas for walking outings as a result. The departure point for such attentions was Settle, since I had not passed Attermire Scar or visited Malham and its nearby tarn for far too long. Sunshine may not have been in ample supply through my walking rounds, so another trip to Malham Cove cannot be ruled out, and it could see me going to Skipton on foot as well. There were two outings in total, and there already is another in mind.
It has been a spring full of city visitations, too. In the north of England, the tally included Newcastle, Leeds and Sheffield and Scottish cities like Edinburgh and Stirling got their share of attention too and there even was a trip to Cardiff for some wandering by the River Taff. More will be written about these below, while Newcastle saw more wandering than other northern cities as I pottered along by the River Tyne on the way to Wallend using part of Hadrian's Wall Path. That again was a quieter stroll, and there was much to savour on a journey from a city centre to greener parts of its suburbs.
An elongated Easter weekend allowed for a longer stay in Edinburgh that has been in mind for some time, and there was a truncated effort in 2017. 2019 saw no such intrusions, so I was there from Holy Thursday through to Easter Tuesday as planned. That allowed for a lot of city rambling, and there were two visits to Linlithgow. Hill wandering featured too, and days were spent among the Pentland Hills and doing a round of the hills encircling Glen Sax. Along came reminisces and silly daydreams entered my mind, but the time spent around a city where I spent part of my university years also became a chance to deal with any episodes of unfulfilled promise that returned to haunt me.
When I moved away from Edinburgh in 2000, there may have been an element of unfinished business that drew me back again and again to somewhere for which I still hold much affection. The 2019 version of the same was a suboptimally composed photo on Calton Hill, so I returned on the Mayday bank holiday weekend to set that to rights. Other sights like the city's botanic gardens and Corstorphine Hill Local Nature Reserve were frequented too, and the latter featured on another visit during the following weekend.
Though I was bound for Stirling, a stopover in Edinburgh did allow me to revisit The Royal Mile and Corstorphine Hill in good sunshine for the sake of a little closure of what was becoming like an Edinburgh trilogy. Stirling saw plenty of sauntering with photographic pursuits in mind, but the prospect of a walk among the nearby Ochil Hills remains outstanding, so that could be another excuse to go back up there again.
After all those weekend forays elsewhere, it now feels as if some quiet time at home is in order, and that pervaded the Spring Bank Holiday weekend aside from the aforementioned day trip to Cardiff. Others making the same journey had the attendance of a Spice Girls concert in mind, but designs were far more demure as I avoided bands of cyclists to amble by the River Taff to take in the spring foliage on trees around Bute Park and Llandaff on a sunny afternoon that could not be enjoyed further north, such was the available weather. The summer awaits, so only when that arrives will its roaming be revealed.
Echoes of repetition
1st March 2019 There are times when trip ideas get re-used. The unseasonal sunny weather that dominated the second week of February became a backdrop to some of this. Firstly, it lured me up to Great Ayton for a day spent around Roseberry Topping, Highcliffe Nab and Easby Moor. This was a variation of a route enjoyed more than a year earlier when snow and ice were dominant. Then, the ground conditions added a need for extra care that probably should have precluded an ascent of Roseberry Topping that was facilitated far better in conditions more typical of late spring or early summer.
A few days later, I was drawn to Earl Sterndale for a walk that took in the tops of both Parkhouse Hill and Chrome Hill. The latter was more friendly to those whose tolerance of exposure is more limited. Some might go up and over the former but I did an out and back trip to its summit before kinder gradients were descended in a northward direction. In the autumn of 2017, I had passed both on the way from Sterndale Moor to Buxton but avoided their summits on that equally pleasant sunny day.
Sometimes, there are stronger patterns of repetition there is one shared between 2010 and 2017. Both featured trips to Sweden and Aberdeenshire as well as marking the start and end of my time with a single employer. Because of the changeover in employment arrangements, the destination pairing has a certain eerie resonance for me.
Neither the Swedish or Aberdeen trips were my first to either place but it took a third visit to the former for more of a leisure focus to show itself. September 1997 saw my first visit to Aberdeen and that was for a scientific congress while business was the main motivation for those first two trips to Sweden. Even so, there opportunities for personal exploration offer themselves too because conferences cannot occupy you for all their duration and long sunny Swedish summer evenings made for pleasant strolling around both Södertälje and Stockholm.
The 2010 sojourn in Aberdeen allowed for more city strolling and a visit to Braemar only months after starting a new job. There was no mountain walking in 2017 but Stonehaven, Dunnottar Castle, Banchory, Crathes Castle and the Deeside Way more than occupied the time not spent on city wanderings. In fact, the idea of doing some castle visiting was a seed sown during the previous trip. That it preceded my leaving the company that I joined in 2017 by a matter of months made it a kind of a bookend to my time there.
One of the motivations for heading to Aberdeen for the 2017 Spring Bank Holiday weekend was as a means of dealing with the fact that I no longer enjoyed working where I was. Together with a second trip to Norway, it was intended to salve the lack of enthusiasm that I had for what I was doing but it was not to be a long term strategy so I made the difficult decision to leave my then employer and take a career break while I worked through the aftermath of a number of life events as well as working out what my future career direction might be.
It was after starting the career break, that I then headed to Stockholm for an extended weekend stay. My previous time in Sweden preceded a departure from a then current employer and information transfer was its purpose. Only weeks later, I was going to start with the employer that I left in 2017 so there was a curious symmetry about my actions. Naturally, city explorations were to follow with even Gothenburg receiving a fleeting visit. Tyresta National Park became the starting point for the longest hike that I enjoyed while in the country. The whole experience was vastly more restive than the preceding months and it would take more than a year before I started to explore places beyond British and Irish shores.
If I have my way, such juxtapositions as pairings of trip destinations and career changes may not be repeated in the future. Though there are other places to see and experience, I also hope to continue my Scottish and Scandinavian encounters. My choice would be that they do not need career upheavals to make them happen because we need to keep making more happy memories to get us through times that are more testing.
Travel shows
18th February 2019 For me, a rural Irish upbringing brought with it participation in agricultural shows and other country events. Trade stands were manned, cows got lead around show rings and vintage fairs got stewarded. The last of these became the cause of getting sunburnt; being indoors studying for so much of the year ensured that young bare skin remained unseasoned.
Though these contained hints of the agrarian about them, there were other hints that my future mainly lay outside of farming. When helping with trade stands promoting the advantages of Jersey or Simmental cattle, I was not the one doing the selling. Aside from my not having a salesperson's bone in me, I simply did not know enough about animal husbandry to do any promotion and stuck to simpler tasks like keeping videos playing or giving out stickers to anyone who wanted them. Even back then, I knew my strengths.
More recently, industry conferences came into my life even if I am more likely to read their published papers rather than being there to watch them being presented to fellow colleagues. As it happens, that is something that I would like to address later this year should circumstances allow. These are busy events with a certain social aspect and have so many presentations that one hardly needs to go around stands; also, there can be good reason not to do so if you are not looking to switch job or buy some software tool.
The cause of all the above entering my mind is more leisure-focussed: a single weekend in January was occupied by my going to two travel shows. The first was the Adventure Travel Show in the London Olympia and the second was Destinations at Manchester's EventyCity. The latter was the northern counterpart of the London version of the same show that took place two weeks later. Attending the southern counterpart may have been tempting but there is only so much that can be gained by going to the same show twice.
Having gone to the Photography Show in March of last year and gained so much, I was not surprised by the mix of talks and trade stands on offer at both of January's travels shows. My having been at the 2018 event only made me more courageous that I once would have been. Stand holders prove not to be that much more pro-active than those encountered at the agricultural shows of my younger days. Being able to look before asking any questions has its appeal.
Picking up brochures is part of many a show and I had a hobby of doing such things at agricultural shows though stand holders much preferred them to end up in the hands of prospective customers than mere youngsters. Though never that interested in motor cars, my brother did get to an Irish motor show in 1986 and an ensuing, and much prized, bounty of brochures found its way to me. A residual interest in cars may persist but it is better these days by more active pursuits like travel, photography and the main subject of this blog.
This year's travel shows also caused my to collect a bounty of brochures, especially at the Destinations show. It might have been that there was more to pick up but I also wondered if I was overdoing things are the relative restraint of the Adventure Travel Show. Still, there was overlap between with activity holidays being quite a mainstay. Walking, cycling and wildlife watching all featured with a certain more out of the way feel to the London event.
That certainly applies to the talks that took place there and, unlike the Photography Show, they all were free to attend. Featured destinations included Greenland, Patagonia, Spain and others and there were seminars too though I stayed away from those because of their time commitments when there were so many stands to browse with a range extending from tourist agencies to travel magazines with plenty of tour operators in attendance. Choosing to return home at a reasonable hour also meant missing out on a film night but enough was gained without that.
There was less in the way of audiovisual information at the Manchester event though it did feature cookery demonstrations and talks on travel health matters such as avoiding overseas infections and infestations. Still, there were talks on visiting such diverse destinations as Sri Lanka and Canada for those who wished to rest weary legs for a while. Being there on the last day revealed something that I last met at those Irish events: there was a certain anticlimax as things drew towards a close, especially after lunch when a neighbouring camping and caravanning show also opened for attendees.
Naturally, both events featured eateries even if they were nowhere near as extensive as last year's Photography Show. Getting to them involved its own lesson learning, especially the London event at the Olympia. Getting there from Macclesfield in the future will avoid use of the London Underground in favour of changing trains at Stoke-on-Trent and Milton Keynes to arrive at Kensington Olympia station on the national rail network. The Manchester event was easier to reach by public transport with a return train journey and bus journey combination easily facilitating the needful.
Having missed the events on previous years for one reason or another, it was good to get to them. While independent travel remains my preference, it was good to see what package tours are on offer and what tourism agencies have to say about what is possible in their respective countries. Those brochures need perusal while other thinking continues.
History
5th February 2019 It appears that we are living in one of history's more turbulent epochs, and such is the drama that I have avoided reading very much history until now. The cause has been as much about the fear of reliving what is unnerving about our current times as the allure of other interests. However, I have relented and started on books that have awaited my attention for far too long.
Completing Tim Robinson's Aran Island duology and his Connemara trilogy made me more open to Diarmaid Ferriter's On the Edge, a modern history of Ireland's offshore islands that was published towards the end of last year. When that proved eminently readable, I then started on the same author's The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, and that will keep me going for a while before finishing two more from other authors would complete the same backlog.
History remains a subject to which I am more than partial, with Christopher Clarke's The Sleepwalkers, Norman Davies' Vanished Kingdoms and Robert Kee's The Green Flag all acting as staging posts on an ever continuing expansion of perspective. More may follow if I ever decide to look further into the stories of various other countries that I have explored in recent years and Switzerland comes to mind here.
That is not to imply that other titles will not be perused during this run of historical reading, but they are likely to lighten the mix. In any event, there is a pile of unread magazines that also needs reducing, so that should help my idea collection to grow. At this time of year, it is usually opportune to think ahead to what excursions may be possible, and North American ones are tempting options for this coming summer. What happens in reality still remains another matter, though.
While it can be pleasant to allow your imagination to take flight, political and financial realities do help to ensure restraint. The acquisition of a new lens for my Canon EOS 5 Mark II and the rebuild of a five-year-old desktop PC involved such an investment that I am not so willing to expend too much more at the moment. Nevertheless, the new lens needs more testing so that adds incentive for an outing should more sunshine come our way. It is fine to dream, but modest excursions do much for any overburdened spirit.
Overflow
31st January 2019 Quite how I never considered how life's affairs refuse to fit within calendar years is beyond me because I have several examples to recall. Even though the aspiration of closing off things for a year end persists, that does not mean that it is remotely realistic. Accepting such continuity may be the best course even if some decry what they call drift.
There are times when the end of a year only adds items to a to do list for the next. That happened me in 2017 and it caused me to get much done about my Irish business last year. 2016 was one of those years when closure was sought because of a mix of continuing grieving, an unappealing job and looming deadline for the probation of my late father's estate. It became a forlorn hope and influenced how things went in 2017.
Still, many years enjoy quiet starts and 2018 became one of those. It allowed me to rethink my career and choose self-employment as the way out of what I perceived to be career doldrums. In contrast, this year has seen a collision between unfinished work form last year with new plans for this year and unexpected matters. Leaving things flow in preference to filling supposedly empty time with tasks now looks the wiser course.
Even so, I have got to attending the Adventure Travel Show and Destinations in the same January weekend. The first of these carried me to the London Olympia for attendance of talks and gawping at stands. The next day saw me head to Manchester's EventCity for the second when more of the same ensured. Leaflets were snaffled in numbers in an effort to look in on possibilities eschewed by my preference for independent travelling. The act might be more like one of education rather than the change of course that it might suggest.
Continuation also underlay my mid-Winter escape to Tenerife with its beginning in the dying days of 2018 and ending in the start of 2019. After what befell me on my 2016 Mallorcan trip, acclimatisation was a hallmark this time around and it worked. No ill-effects blighted the start of 2019 apart from eating stale food on my return and that only lasted around twelve hours. Other mid-Winter possibilities are more likely than they once were.
Though most base themselves in the south-west of the island, I plumped for the quieter north-east and Santa Cruz was where I stayed. New Year's Eve saw me potter into the city's neighbouring hills while New Year's Day allowed for a more adventurous circuit around Igueste de San Andrés than I expected. Parque Nacional del Teide got a visit too with some pottering about Roques del Garcia within sight of El Teide itself. The higher altitude did little to restrict my activities but I had reigned in any enthusiasm in any event.
The parched countryside played host to larger versions of the sort of cacti that my late mother would have had as indoor potted plants. Poinsettias grew out of doors with help from flowerbed irrigation and came in different colours too. Both these observations were reminders of the important of bringing ample quantities of water on any walks in the subtropical winter heat.
Adjusting to a cold climate after this took some time but it has happened and a recent spell of snow is a reminder that the warmer days of spring and summer are a bit away yet. That gives time for some planning of additional exploring and the current political travails need escaping for a while and it is as yet unclear what they will mean for overseas explorations. Meanwhile, I hope to do more domestic exploring than a recent day trip to Lincoln.
