Category: Times and Seasons
Within a landscape of loss
14th April 2013 It's been quiet on here since last February and part of the cause has been a life event. Within the last few weeks, my aged mother passed away after a short illness. There were other underlying medical problems too so we couldn't expect the increasingly frail lady to be around forever. Yet, she went quicker than we would have grown to expect. In fact, it was my father who was of greater concern with his nearly dying on us at the start of January. Miraculously, he came from that but still needs round the clock nursing care. That has placed him in a nursing home and it's not something that he is accepting easily; every so often, we have the pain of him inventing schemes to get away from there and it's very far from being a bad example of the breed. Loneliness, grief and perhaps a certain amount of homesickness may be behind his ever more desperate and worrying suggestions. He cannot live as he did before so it would be great to see him settle where he is.
It's at times like these that a good natter with a friend can mean so much, especially someone who intimately knows a little of the situation that is being faced. Also, there's trotting through the countryside. Most of these are short strolls in nearby parks in Wilmslow and Macclesfield. There is something about purposeful striding that gets stress out of your system (much better than taking it out on someone else anytime) while also allowing a bit of head clearing thinking. Amusing encounters with other folk's dogs lift the spirit too.
There was a longer trot in the sunshine of last Saturday from Hayfield to Glossop via Coldwell Clough, Kinder Reservoir, William Clough and Doctor's Gate. It was the prospect of going through a less peopled countryside that was the cause of drawing me there. There wasn't complete desertion though, even if there was more than plenty of space for everyone. It granted me the long episodes of solitude that allowed for gazing upon the surrounding moorland and dealing with any unevenness in the terrain; the Doctor's Gate footpath was a little tricky due to subsidence and areas of banked snow, but most of my course was less taxing than this, even those snow banks I found higher up William Clough. Mostly, I wasn't concentrating much on where my legs needed to travel and more on enjoying the experience of being out and about, of feeling that not all life comes to a stop when a loved one is lost.
Hopefully, there will be more of those longer outdoor escapades. My mother may wonder at where I went but she loved the outdoors too. Scenic parts of counties Kerry and Cork were particular favourites, but Connemara and Wicklow saw their way into her canon as well. She was the one who most appreciated any souvenir volumes of landscape photos that I ever brought as gifts. The last of these that I ever gave to her came from a trip to the Isle of Man, a gift for Mother's Day. Of special delight to her was the exposure to sea air with many a trip to Irish seaside destinations such as Ballybunion, Beale, Ballyheigue and Banna (all in County Kerry as it happened, and she was a Corkwoman) resulted from this desire. Though I do coastal walking, I have never been a seaside person with my own preferences causing day outings to Gougane Barra and Killarney. In fact, the best ever visit to the latter also had the best weather of a hot sunny Sunday in May 2010. With a decline in my father's well-being, that was our last such trip like that together and its memories are all the more important now.
It is from my parents that I got the hill country bug that has been the cause of so many excursions. Times may be trying now but they also may be the cause of my getting out and about more too. In times past, it may have caused some conflicts of its own, but the head clearing properties of a good walk are more than apt right now.
Sudden stratospheric what?
20th January 2013 Last night, I saw BBC video clips about the phenomenon that has been behind our cold spell. Apparently, a mixing of air between the troposphere (up to 10 km high) and the stratosphere (10-50 km high) in the atmosphere has disrupted the usual polar winter vortex and had an effect on our weather too, with the usual Atlantic jet stream getting blocked and winds drawing cold air from Europe over to us. Part of this whole thing is something called sudden stratospheric warming and it gives weather forecasters a hint of what is to come even if it doesn't become an Arctic spell of wintry weather like what we are getting now.
Macclesfield's nearby hills have been getting their share of the white stuff, but its hold on the town is more tenuous. In fact, there was a semblance of a thaw earlier on today. Many pavements were clear of ice and snow as I popped down the Riverside Park by the river Bollin for a short taste of the winter conditions. There were plenty of folk out and about too and many of them were walking dogs. Not everywhere was coated in white and the river was flowing well too.
The sights of green grass with which I was surrounded could be changed though by what is falling from the sky as I am writing these words. It is nowhere near as heavy as some places though the Met Office is forecasting near constant if light snowfall for tonight and tomorrow, so who knows what could build up on us? Still, we are not expecting dumps like what south Wales and south-east England got or what has been predicted for both sides of the Scotland-England border.
Funnily enough, times like these used to have me wondering about seeing hills and they coated in white, but the excitement of snowfall appears to have been lost on me for whatever reason. It might have been those cold spells in the winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11 when I got my fill, but there may be other factors. After all, having ageing parents means a certain amount of worry in times like these and there is the obvious nuisance factor of snow and ice too. Or is it the general greyness that seems to be accompanying this cold snap where I live? Still, the mix of white snow and grey skies can be a powerful one in photos so that could liberate me for whatever is jaundicing my outlook right now. It'd be no harm leaving the cares of the world behind me for a while to enjoy something that usually happens to be ephemeral in our climate.
As it so happens, my eyes have been feasting on sunlit greens and not grey whiteness. The cause has been a catch-up with trip reports from last summer and autumn. There should be more to come and I may have one from this year in the form of a walk along the Macclesfield Canal from Congleton to home from last Sunday too. The one long walk a month plan remains and I am hoping to be among hills more often too. Of course, that depends on how life goes this year and that is a story yet to told and may have a few unexpected twists and turns too. January, normally a quieter month, has been a roller coaster ride already too so I'm keeping an open mind as to how things will go from here.
Update 2013-01-21: Overnight, Macclesfield (and its nearby hills too since keeping the roads from Buxton to Macclesfield and Congleton clear is quite an effort) did get quite an accumulation of snow until it stopped around midday. Some of it has melted since but there still is a lot of whitening with snow sticking to trees now too. With the cold week ahead, it looks like it'll stay a while too, so a weekend escapade may come to pass. It's not likely to be too adventurous and a train journey along the Settle to Carlisle railway line came to mind last week. Making a loop of that outing using the West Coast Mainline popped into my head too. It's a far cry from the heights where you'd need an ice axe and some avalanche awareness. Maybe I might get to the foothills yet like I did in previous cold snaps; today's whitening certainly brightened my day in its own way.
Into 2013…
1st January 2013 2012 was a slower year for this place than others, but there still are things to say. Outstanding trip reports await writing and there are other things to be sharing too, so there should be no stopping yet. The one longer walk a month ethic (there may be more sometimes, of course) will remain for me even if December saw a trip to Tatton Park was the most that I got to do; those Christmas preparations had their part to play in this, naturally. Even the Christmas and New Year period saw less than it usually might have done, for a variety of reasons.
Today, I am nursing a heavy cold, so that has put paid to any greater ambitions that I may have had for New Year's Day of 2013. The weather has had its part to play too, with all those deluges that have been tormenting others far more than me. Let's hope that the promised dry spell of weather materialises and allows everywhere to dry out a little. Once this cold is behind me, I even might get out for that longer walk of the month too.
Apart from the cold, there is one other thing that limits grand designs like my trip to the Western Isles in 2008. My parents are older and my father's health is far from what it was, so it will need close watching and more thinking about his care than he himself is willing to do. Walks still will be needed to clear minds from time to time, so they won't stop. The de-stressing action of simply putting one foot before another is one help, and there is the time for thinking too. When I changed jobs in 2010, both of these really helped, and I hope that they'll continue to do so.
That's not to say that there won't be brighter interludes, too. After all, it is amazing how bright lighting of wonderful countryside and the peace of the natural world can soothe and delight a weary soul. When I was watching episodes of BBC Scotland's Adventure Show highlighting the Scottish National Trail on the iPlayer. The first of these really struck a resonance with me because of how many of the places featured were among those that I have passed on my Scottish forays. Places such as Kirk Yetholm, the Eildon Hills, the Three Brethren, the Pentland Hills, Edinburgh and its Water of Leith walkway, the southern reaches of the West Highland Way, the Rob Roy Way, Aberfoyle and Aberfeldy. It felt as if I had shadowed much of the route on my various comings and goings. It was hard to say the same for much of the countryside crossed in the second part, though I have had a taste of what Glen Tilt has to offer last June. The threatened Monadh Liath hardly have seen any invasion from me, and those north-western Scottish fastnesses have lain beyond my attention so far.
There has been a chance to catch up with unread issues of TGO too. Older ones from before the big redesign were among these, and I was reminded how more portable these used to be. Of course, Android digital editions fulfil this need, so I suppose that I need to look at that app, though there is something a little more special about holding a paper magazine in your hand in these ever digital days. Also, I am catching up with those delayed trip reports too, and they are reminders of ambiences experienced then that may be revisited in the flesh again not far into the future. Macclesfield's nearby hill country has its share of these to offer, so it could come into its own when short departures from the cares of modern life are needed, and other similar spots are not too far away either, so who knows where I could be hiking?
2013 may feel more uncertain for me than other years, but I got through 2010 and that was bumpy in its own respects. For me, it looks as if it will be a matter of inching a way through the year. Of course, at the start of any year, it is impossible to know where things will sit at its end, and so it is with this one. Obstacles get overcome and life goes forward in its adventurous manner. Over the Christmas period, I read an opinion piece from Cameron McNeish in TGO bemoaning adventure holidays and their misplaced concepts of planning and organisation. Life's not like that, so that mindset sounds hubristic to me, and especially so now.
While my 2013 is beginning in a wistful state of mind, I hope that yours will be good to you. May twelve months hence have us recalling happy surprises that have come upon us along the way too; I am recalling 2012's in my own mind right now as this blog goes into its eighth calendar year (the actual birthday is at the start of May). Life's adventure continues...
A time that’s safe for dreaming?
21st November 2012 The allure of working in the outdoors also has attracted its share of dreamers, some of whom have managed to turn their dreams into reality. A few months back, I was reminded of this when reading a copy of Outdoor Photography. In there, I found something written that I hadn't seen for a while: an amateur photographer whose work was featured possessed the aspiration of turning professional. So much has happened in recent years that I wonder such dreams are realisable or if they are mere delusions.
One thing that hasn't changed is the appeal of the countryside to those living in urban settings. Escaping the topsy turvy of modern life is what keeps me getting in walks in quieter places and thoughts of seeing them in pleasing light is an attraction, especially when it comes to photographic capture of those scenes. In that, I am not alone even if life gets in the way from time to time.
Of course, the countryside is under pressure and that always seems to be the case. There is that fungus that kills ash trees just like another has been doing the same for elms, though some still survive and some progress seems to have been made with making the trees more resistant to the fungus that is carried by beetles. Then, there's the thorny subject of wind-powered electricity generation that rouses strong feelings. Added to that lot is a government so desperate for economic growth that it's willing to change planning laws in the hope that that might help.
We already have seen cuts in public spending taking hold. A few years ago, I remember reading of someone taking redundancy to start further education in order to become a countryside ranger. Those opportunities hardly can be very plentiful so I wonder how she got on with her planned career change. After all, not only have local authority budgets been reduced but national park authorities saw the same happen to theirs shortly after the current government took power.
Saturation of markets comes to mind when anyone shares ambitions of becoming a professional photographer and it isn't limited to that profession either. After all, how many guides and guidebook authors do we need? Maybe there were less walking guidebooks available than there are now, which gave some long-established writers a chance, but those bookshop shelves are well loaded now and there's the rise of digital publishing too. Cicerone may be keeping there eBooks at the same prices as their paper equivalents but I for one have been used to their being cheaper so how long can that last?
The advent of digital photography has had quite an effect on the lot of a professional photographer. A decade ago, a well supplied stock library was a good source of income but that seems not to be the case any longer. Sales of books, calendars and postcards help but there also is quite a growth in the provision of photography courses and writing always is an option. Such is the volume of images that is available that it is impossible to limit yourself to travel, landscape or wildlife photography to maintain that all important income.
It seems that even the obvious outdoors careers are not immune to the upheavals of the present day. Hobbies can lead to careers and my means for earning a living is an example of that as well as something from which many yearn to exit. Having grown up on a farm, I realise that an outdoors life isn't all easy and there are many things today that make it that bit harder too. Contenting myself with earning my crust using the skills and experience that I possess is how I plan to proceed while enjoying those all-important outdoor escapades for affording some quiet time away from it all. However, it also looks as if bit more effort is needed to keep the countryside more intact than otherwise might be the case. On that, I reckon that I need to have a think.
Why go elsewhere when there are good things nearby?
9th October 2012 The past few weekends have seen me enjoy walks through some local countryside. For instance, Sunday saw me drop from the Cat and Fiddle Inn into the Goyt Valley before walking along its length as far as Whaley Bridge. Skies may have filled with cloud as I went and much mud may have been encountered, but that reminder from last January while on another walk from the same starting point that landed me in Buxton at its end was set to prove its worth and I wouldn't mind having another hike around there either.
The Saturday of the previous weekend came up sunny too, and I used the afternoon for a walk from Bollington back to my house that took in the Saddle of Kerridge and Tegg's Nose Country Park as I revisited parts that I should frequent more often than I do. In fact, that was a thought that occupied my thoughts as I took in my surroundings. Given that there is so much on my doorstep, I have been wondering about the reason why I am not out there more often.
That may get corrected on the evidence of the Saturday before that again when I followed part of Macclesfield Canal while en route to Lyme Green Retail Park on a shopping errand. A short snippet like that neatly fits into a life with other things that need doing. Little outings often have their uses in getting outside to build up to bigger ones, and that certainly has been happening over the last few weeks.
During that time, thoughts of wandering around Teesdale from Middleton-in-Teesdale has surfaced more than once, only for working week fatigue to put paid to the scheme. The same thing has defeated a trip to Abergavenny to go up and down Sgyrryd Fawr. Another is playing more of a part now as well: local attractions. That's quite a change, given how delights that were further away once blinded me to what lay nearby.
For instance, Sunday offered choices that I struggled to decide between them. One possibility was a walk that took me from the Cat and Fiddle Inn, over Shutlingsloe and then onto home. It was one that would have been my choice but for the sight of cloud advancing from the south. Reprising the Gritstone Trail between Bollington and Disley was another, and there's walking along the Macclesfield Canal between Macclesfield and Congleton in mind too. Then the sun shone and decision needed overcoming to get out the door. The Goyt Valley may have got my vote on the day, but the others remain tempting though and would make ideal walks for shorter days too.
However, that is not to imply that walks have been discounted because the list of trip reports that need writing include a range of destinations: Loch Ericht and Glen Tilt in Scotland, Cumbria's Howgill Fells, the Gower in south Wales and Pembrokeshire in west Wales. Of these, I scarcely have made any mention of those August visits to Wales. The Gower saw me walk from Rhossili to Port Eynon, and it is a hike that I can recommend. On a long deserved return to Pembrokeshire, I sampled part of the coastal path between Strumble Head and Fishguard. Cloud may have filled the skies on both of these - is that becoming something of a feature for me, I wonder? - but the walking was good and that's all that I ever ask.
So, I have some sharing to do and more ideas on places to explore and revisit. The shortness of some of my designs should mean that the shorter days of winter should not be an excuse for hibernation. Getting in (at least) one longer walk every month has become my target, and it seems to be happening so far. It's a habit that I wish to continue.
