Category: Times and Seasons
An evening stroll
14th July 2009 With all of the computer goings-on (there have been some confidence-deflating mishaps this year) and the need to give my house a good tidy (it is that time of year for me), I wasn't able to get away for a longer outing over the weekend. So, I opted for a more freestyle amble on Sunday evening than is my wont. Anything that allowed me a short break could not be dismissed.
Very unusually for me, maps were left at home as I explored the greener ways, many of them off-road cycle paths serving local schools, around Macclesfield town. Most of them were metalled, but one took me on an about-turn through muddier terrain. Opting to stay on better known thoroughfares after that, I followed the road towards Gawsworth before turning left onto a quiet lane that took me right around that village. The number of times that I have visited the place might explain how I knew my way around so well.
While I was minded to stay on tarmac all the way until I joined the Macclesfield canal near Oakgrove, memories of a previous wander about the area caused me to take a chance and leave the road again to test my memory. It didn't fail that test as I found my way to and through Danes Moss wood, a Wildlife Trust reserve and part of a cutaway peat bog, to a crossing over the troubled West Coast Mainline to reach the aforementioned canal.
That was followed until Gurnett where a towpath closure caused me to follow roads from there back home; I think that the closure is due to a collapsed wall, but it will continue until early October anyway. Though devoid of sunshine, the evening had been fine and pleasant, and it would have been foolish to dismiss its possibilities. It is the longer hours of daylight that allows quieter strolls like the one that I enjoyed, making something of the torpor of summer after the wondrous rush that was spring.
Pondering midsummer torpor
6th July 2009 With all the attention given to winter hibernation, it is easy to forget that there is summertime laziness too. Regular readers will realise that I prize the period of the year between the winter solstice and its summer equivalent highly and especially the eruption of verdant vegetation that gives us the wonders of May. The trouble with that is that the wind can evade your sails after the longest day of the year and you get to wondering if the year has passed its best like I did on here about this time last year. This time around, I am less bothered by the matter and I am seemingly more open to the attractions of the time of year and the observation that the countryside still delights even with cloudy skies.
Speaking of last year, July was a quiet month with a perhaps foolish walking trip to Welshpool on an oppressively hot Sunday at the end of the month. Apart from that, it was left to bike rides to capture any episodes of dry or sunny weather because of other preoccupations and distractions about this time; some involvement with dramatic activity in the world of WordPress was only partly to blame.
It's all too easy to have a bout of mid-year lethargy round about now. For one thing, feeling that you have made ample use of any opportunities that arose can only dull the hunger for thrusting oneself into hill country. That can place your motivation at the mercy of other things like the weather. On one end of the spectrum, you have heavy rain showers like those that we have been seeing recently, the type that makes the idea of mobile roof appealing and the heat emphasises the advantages of umbrellas over raincoats in certain conditions. Then, there's hot sunshine and my running hot means that I favour cooler temperatures than some. Also, classic summer weather isn't the best for photography, another mechanism that gets out among those hills. Saying that, pleasant mornings ahead of a rain or wonderful evenings after one often offer the most. These circumstances offer a certain freshness and clarity that is missing from heat haze obstructed equivalents that abound during a heatwave.
The myth may indicate otherwise but July can be a very unsettled month, even in a year not known for a rubbish summer. In 1999, for instance, it was very grey in Edinburgh until the end of the month when a sunny propelled me onto Skye on a multi-day outing that sowed the seeds for many more. Speaking of Scotland, you end up awaiting the departure of the jet stream before settled weather is visited upon the country. In 2003, I called it wrong and had my week up there far too early. Though it felt that I was getting a constant soaking at the time, looking back does highlight its brighter times: a wonderful day spent beside Loch Etive and a dry if dull trot from Kinlochleven to Fort William along the West Highland Way. Staying with hindsight, it might have been better off sticking with reconnaissance on the damper days, but the soakings that I got while travelling between my lodgings in Banavie and Fort William couldn't have been avoided by this approach. However, I did keep it in mind for my Western Isles escapade last year and foul weather alternatives will be placed on file for any trip in August. That isn't to say that July is always damp but 2006 saw a scorcher visited upon us and I extricated something of value amid the uncertainties in 2004 and 2005 too. Last year and the year before were far from inspiring, but dry sunny weather was there to be enjoyed too and that's how I'll remember them.
All in all, that mixture should tell us that it's best not to expect much of July and this year seems to be following suit after the dryness of June. Last weekend mixed in downpours and sunshine so I grabbed the opportunity for a day sailing trip from Liverpool to the Isle of Man. As it turned out, I left a grey Liverpool for a damp Douglas that made me glad that I hadn't committed to spending a lot of time on the island. Along the way, I learnt a little more about what is on offer over there and thoughts are turning to longer trips, more realistically to be occasional but a useful entry on the ideas shelf nonetheless. From what I have seen so far, there seems to be plenty of coastal walking and there's hill country to be savoured too. Public transport on the Isle of Man looks workable too with a good level of service on offer. Sunshine may have been encountered in Liverpool rather than my destination but I am not so easily discouraged. If I was, I might have stopped exploring the British and Irish countryside long ago.
Ideas for that week in August are collecting and they aren't all Scottish either. For one thing, there's always the Pennine Way, but Connemara has come to mind already and now the Isle of Man. Scottish proposals like the Rob Roy Way, extending out from Mallaig, the Cairngorms and the north-west Highlands remain in the running. The options may be more open this year but it's good to have them too. Hopefully, something can come of them.
Some are lucky…
3rd June 2009 It may have cooled down now, but the recent burst of warm sunny weather brought familiar thoughts to mind. For one thing, the heat forestalled any plans for a day spent wandering in some hill country. Memories of how I felt after a day walking around Welshpool in oppressive heat were to blame for that. Hiking and hot weather can make such poor mixers that a heatwave might be classifiable as bad weather, an illogical thing to most people.
Nevertheless, I took to the bike for a spin around the highways and byways of Cheshire. Saturday evening saw me out on quiet country lanes and braving busy traffic about Congleton; the weather had lured many out. Only for thoughts of closing times, I might have ventured out later on Sunday than I did when I embarked on a round trip that took in Tatton Park, which was well busy thanks to a classic car weekend, and a quieter Dunham Massey. Along the way, I certainly caught the heat and worries about a faltering back tyre joined the fray too. Otherwise, reasonable use had been made of the weather on offer.
For many, it would have made the classic bank holiday weekend but for a none too shabby Spring Bank Holiday being a week earlier (I haven't forgotten my promises on trip reports at all...). Those in the Irish Republic, however, get no Spring Bank Holiday, with one at the start of June taking its place. That meant the economic gloom could be forgotten for a while, with many heading for the coast.
It may not be my scene, but the attractions of cool sea breezes cannot be underestimated. In fact, my thoughts were being drawn to cool shady spots near water and away from the madding crowds. However, every option that my brain could summon was likely to be well frequented if not thronged, so I went out cycling instead. Quiet, overlooked local lanes hardly ever fail.
Easter journeys
10th April 2009 No doubt, many news outlets are in the throes of reporting the now habitual Easter weekend exodus. My use of the word "exodus" is perhaps not inappropriate given that Jews are celebrating Passover at the moment, but a later journey gave us Easter and the weekend that, so many are using to their advantage. Conveniently for a blog celebrating the joys of walking in the outdoors, the Exodus was a long-distance walk to freedom and safety while Easter celebrates something else that featured walking in different ways.
Returning to the here and now, past Easters have allowed me opportunities for walking escapades. Two years ago, I got to collect up walks that covered part of the Pennine Way between Gargrave and Hawes. The previous year saw me end up on the island of Arran while three years before saw me wandering the High Peak. Other Easters have not been so fruitful with last year's being a time of clearing clutter, mental and otherwise. For me, it also has been a time for starting a new job, moving home as well as dealing with other "life events", a mixed bag really.
Those thoughts of past Easters are leading me to wonder what I am going to make of this one. The weather that is on offer this year looks like a bit of a mixture, but seeing some sun and drying between any showers would suffice; some Easters have been fabulous, but this will not be one of them if the forecasts and the sight of rain falling outside my window is to be any guide. Nothing definite is planned, but something may fall into place before all is over. I reckon that I need to get my thinking hat on...
British Summer Time
2nd April 2009 Since Sunday, there have been a raft of announcements and happenstances that make it look as someone somewhere has held them over until the arrival of BST. First, there's spell of dry weather. The sun might be in short supply but I'm far from complaining as I have turned to the bike for the daily commute. I also have every plan not to have a computing failure stop me from embarking on an outdoors escapade like last weekend. While on the subject of weather, we have had the Met Office adding more detail to their mountain weather information and the Peak District has been added as a new area too, not at all inappropriate given the number of visitors that it receives.
The mention of a National Park brings to mind the announcement of one for the South Downs. Hopefully, the rancour that has accompanied the New Forest one can be avoided but I am reminded of something else: the fact that the southern English countryside is no lure for me. That is never to say that we should value everything in our custodianship so that we can hand it on to future generations in as good a condition as we can. I am sure that these places are an invaluable escape for those living near them but I may have been so spoilt by experiences in open hill country that it is difficult for me muster the wherewithal to visit them. Speaking of being spoilt, living in Cheshire does mean that I am within reach of an embarrassment of riches and the list would become long very quickly. It's the sort of thing that makes me reluctant to move south from here, particularly when I get to realising how little of I have actually savoured.
The mention of Cheshire reminds me of the local authority reorganisation that has happened. Hopefully, the new Cheshire East and Cheshire West & Chester unitary authorities will continue the good work that has been done with regard to public rights of way and not allow serious degradation in public transport provision either. Northumberland is getting a new county council so the same aspirations apply there.
Along with the release of the new Quo by Mapyx, this has been a busy week and that's even without looking in on the events in London but I won't comment on them here. It would be nice to cap it all with an outing. There are no definite plans yet but I am not going to rip up a computer over the weekend if it can be avoided. To get into the great outdoors needs some space and time to be set aside, for planning as much as execution; working through the variety of destinations that creep into my thinking so as to pick one can eat time like it's going out of fashion. An outdoors excursion can clear the head but I have found that other clutter might need clearing first or you'll never even get out the door. That has happened me rather too often...
