Category: Times and Seasons
An exceptional summer
31st July 2018 The long dry spell that has dominated since April has some thinking back as far as 1976. There are some good reasons for doing so. In the Irish countryside, grass is not as plentiful and farm wells have gone dry. Over there, the extent of this has got farmers worried about keeping livestock fed and brought about water usage restrictions for everyone else. Temperatures soared to 32° C during June and roads melted, causing road closures and even bringing out gritting trucks for reasons completely at odds with their usual usage.
So far, 2018 can be said to have two seasons: winter and summer. Spring scarcely came at all and the northern hemisphere has been treated to a long hot sunny spell like few other summers. Fires have started, either naturally, through error or as a result of vandalism. The last of these defies reason yet it is said to have had a human cost in such disparate places as Greece and California. The moors around Manchester and Bolton had their blazes but these thankfully did not threaten life and limb as much.
My venturing into the world of self-employment had limited my enjoyment of the long sunny spells more than a general inclination to keep in out of the heat. Still, I got to spend a day around Edinburgh that took me by the Firth of Forth and the banks of the River Almond before venturing into the Cammo Estate and the heart of Scotland's capital city. Any shady spots were relished because of the afternoon heat. The same applied on a day trip to Barmouth that took me strolling towards Cerrig Arthur before returning via the Panorama Walk while enjoy the views all around that part of the Mawddach estuary. The day was long and felt all the longer on a hot crowded train between Barmouth and Shrewsbury. What remains though are newly made good memories and they always outlast any recollections of ardour.
There has been a week spent in Ireland too with its usual mix of business and leisure. Evening walks took me by Springfield Castle and the village of Kilmeedy and it well bedecked in flowers everywhere you could look. Towards the end of the stay, much needed rain arrived but there was dry weather to savour before that happened. In fact, it may be that the idea of a trip for exclusively leisurely purposes can come to mind and there is a slot when it might happen.
Other than these, evening walks around Macclesfield have made pleasant use of the longer hours of daylight. No longer do I chide myself for not making good use of every sunny day that comes but using enough of them is sufficient nowadays. As long as the burdens of a working life are managed more carefully to leave enough emotional space, the energy and motivation could be enough to keep up my wandering.
The heat may have restrained things this summer but it also had me looking back through previous episodes that had me writing entries on here and that happened in both 2006 and 2007. In 2008, I even got to the subject of warm weather walking. Neither of these compares with 2018 and it even beat the benchmark summers of 1983, 1984 and 1989 that I recall from my childhood and adolescence. This has been a summer that will live long in younger minds as they mature and age. Surely, it will be the better bits that get recalled the most clearly.
Imputation
18th June 2018 It is not often that you will see a statistical term as the heading for an entry on here, but the reason is that, around twenty years ago, I took my first steps into online publishing. Though the exact date is lost to me, I am settling for the middle of June and that inspired the title. After all, this is an educated guess when accurate recollection has faded.
Back then, I was a university student, unsure of what the future might hold. There was the act of writing up a thesis and having it examined before I found a way into a life of work that continuously conveyed me until last August, when a much-needed career break began. That ended last month with my starting out as a freelance consultant. Another adventure has begun, and it brings its delights and agonies, but the hope is that any added sense of autonomy, flexibility and space for managing my affairs would outweigh any episodes of irritation. There is much to learn, and that is its own motivation.
That changeover was not distracted by all the fine weather over the last few weeks. Priorities were such that a trip to Ireland in May brought more in the way of exploring than otherwise was the case. The city of Kilkenny was explored, as was Castletown House near Celbridge in County Kildare. Various walks and cycles around my home in Cheshire have been complimented by episodes of website enhancement. The visible changes have been subtle, but things should load faster now.
What has not been forgotten that there are trip reports outstanding, and that recent round of website tinkering reminded me that I used to split some trip reports into several parts. That was opportune for those relating my Norwegian wanderings will follow that scheme. There will be one each for the 2016 and 2017 trips, and there may be an introductory one too. Chances for such things this summer may be limited by the need to build up some savings again after a period of reduced earnings, but time may bring its own surprises yet.
Of anniversaries and birthdays
7th May 2018 A warm sunny bank holiday weekend may be a rare thing but I have not been lured out and about. In any event, temperatures have risen a little too high for what I call comfortable walking and other preoccupations have overtaken me. Still, they have not been all-consuming so I have not passed the twelfth anniversary of my setting up this blog after a May Day bank holiday trip to Scotland that took in Lochaber, Inverness and highland Perthshire. Sometime in June (the actual date itself is lost to me) marks the twentieth anniversary of my setting up a website for the first time and November is when my public transport website reaches its tenth birthday.
It goes without saying that a lot has happened during these time intervals. Family and work circumstances have changed while my explorations of hill country have become more international; the process of recounting my Norwegian wanderings is an ongoing project. There have been new beginnings and false starts but life has continued in its many ups and downs. The need for constant supply of new and happy memories has been made plain to me as my explorations continue.
Finally, I have got to reading Graham Wilson's Climbing Down and I have other books by the same author to keep me going after that. Guidebooks to parts of North America as well as New Zealand have been perused in the off chance that my wanderings may become intercontinental. Canada's western reaches have their scenic allure together with a hint of danger added by the presence of bears and other wild creatures. It is my intention that those readings continue as I rediscover the necessity of reading books from cover to cover in place of dipping in and out of certain sections. Any way that adds an extra overview has its place. They have added thoughts of visiting Vancouver Island and the Canadian Rockies while any prospect of going as far as New Zealand is more of a long shot.
Before all that, there is a possible venture in my working life that will need setting up if it comes to pass. Once such a thing is place and things are more settled, my hope is that my outdoor explorations will continue. After all, May is the best time of year in Britain and Ireland and I hardly want to let that slip by me if I can help it. Longer outdoors outings may not have happened since February for a variety of reasons but there should be more of the year left for such pursuits. Life's adventure continues.
Incidental ambles
18th January 2018 The start of a new year can be a useful time to take stock of life. January can be a month that some find too quiet, but it has its uses, as I am finding out for myself. A current career break means that I have added occasion to think over what I would like to do for a living. After five years of family bereavements followed by responsibilities added through inheritance, there is plenty of reason for this. What had not been obvious to me is that my last job was not a match and the experience left its mark, one that needs to be overcome.
Throughout all of this, I am not forgetting that I am an explorer at heart. There has been time to catch up on reading and I now have my fill of travel writing, so I will not be lured into book purchases as easily as before. More discernment could be the way of things for me, and that cannot be so bad when finances need to be kept in check during times like this hiatus from work.
Also, I have been travelling around England and Wales collecting ideas for walking trips like Roseberry Topping and Pumlumon Fawr. Surveying the countryside about the latter brought me the added benefit of a short if muddy stroll around Llangurig. Visiting nearby Rhayader is another thought, and a short stay in Aberystwyth could facilitate more than initially had come to mind. Other parts of the Welsh River Wye are ripe for exploring too, and the hills of the Black Mountain on the western side of the Brecon Beacons could be another tempting idea.
City visits to Edinburgh and Cardiff have come to pass. In the middle of the latter, the banks of the River Taff offered an oasis of calm, with Llandaff Cathedral feeling as if it is in the countryside rather than where it is. Bute Park was another delight that makes me wonder why it took so long for me to make an independent visit to the place, and there is Cardiff Castle if I wanted to include that as part of a return visit. There is plenty there for cyclists too, and I am not surprised that bicycle hire is available.
Those city wanderings remind me that there have been times during the last few years when energy for more strenuous outings has not been as readily available. Edinburgh has featured quite a few times, and there are regular haunts nearer my home in Macclesfield. Knutsford's Tatton Park, Disley's Lyme Park together with Macclesfield's Tegg's Nose Country Park and Dane's Moss Nature Reserve all have been places where quick visits offered respite from life's tumult when enthusiasm for longer trips was not to be found. The same could be said for more urban spots like Buxton, Chester, Sheffield and even Manchester. Anywhere where a coffee can be enjoyed away from home has had its uses.
Strolls on my own doorstep like circuits taking in Prestbury all had their uses when my head needed clearing, like on Christmas Eve during my first Christmas spent in Macclesfield. That was a stormy affair, as much in my mind as it was out of doors. When a brighter interlude offered, it did not need much persuasion for me to head out on a longer round that linked Tegg’s Nose, the Saddle of Kerridge and the White Nancy. It became just the breather that I needed at the time.
The last few months have been as much about exorcising hurtful memories as anything else. That included the past Christmas and New Year period, when it felt more normal than others. Trips to Tatton Park, Manchester and Lincoln all broke up the flow and I also got learning that camping stoves should be used out of doors too, a misadventure that I have no relish for repeating.
Getting past that was like everything else in life in recent times. 2017 became a year when I lightened some of life's load, so I need to think ahead now. Getting an enjoyable and fulfilling work life is one thing, and my zest for exploring countryside continues. Overseas excursions could restart yet since I am making my way through Kev Reynolds' Walking in the Alps at the moment and there is his The Swiss Alps, The Pyrenees and Trekking in the Alps after that. That lot should keep me going for a while yet, and I am not overlooking what hill country is nearer to hand either.
Looking back and looking forward
1st January 2018 In Roman mythology, the god Janus is shown as looking both forwards and backwards at once and many have thought that the month of January is named after him. The fact that new beginnings are assigned to this character has done nothing to dispel the association and everyone has their big plans for the start of a new year. Whether they become a reality is another matter entirely.
As it happens, I find myself on the first day of 2018 looking back as much as looking forward. Firstly, June marks the twentieth anniversary of my attempts at online publishing. Then, it was a simple Geocities website and things have moved quite a way since then. The web has changed hugely and so have I.
In the closing years, I was a university student unsure about his future and it took a degree of exploration before I found a way of earning a living that lasted until last summer. Since then, I have been on a much needed career break and now look to 2018 with thoughts of working again. What is needed is a new passion that will drive me forwards after a previous job eventually proved unsuitable.
Regular readers will know that the last five or six years brought their share of toil too with bereavement and added responsibilities following inheritance having altered my mindset. After all that, a longer break was needed. Good though they are, short oversea escapes and incursions into nearby countryside only can do so much.
Aside from a well needed rest, I have been catching up with reading. Books from authors like John Muir and Henry David Thoreau have featured along with others like Bruce Chatwin, Jack Kerouac and Kev Reynolds. Their works have lain unread on my Kindle account for too long and have introduced me to other parts of the planet in a way that guidebooks never would. Sometimes, someone else's narratives are needed and probably explain why there is so much travel writing to be found.
Another aspect of my reading catch-up is that books from Phoebe Smith, Alastair Humphreys, Geoff Allan and Ronald Turnbull have got me thinking about short getaways that make use of bothies and bivvying. Too often in recent years, I have needed to book an overnight stay in order to ensure that I went on a walking trip at all. My reserves of energy had become depleted and adding in the cost of accommodation often made things more expensive so I fancy the idea of getting costs under more control and who knows where such experimentation may take me yet? It might make such outings easier to organise as well.
Aside from finding work that I enjoy and attending to Irish responsibilities, there are no big plans for 2018. Sometimes, leaving things open can allow for some memorable serendipity. Still, there are some thoughts of exploring around Glen Trool, Pumlumon Fawr, Roseberry Topping and the Black Mountain that may happen yet. The expensive cocktail of using overseas holidays to deal with an unappealing career had to stop though I still fancy seeing more of Scandinavia and the Alps while the wilder parts of North America and New Zealand retain their appeal. Life's adventure continues and it is time to make that a happier one.
