Ricky Lightfoot @rickylightfoot was the chap who rescued the lamb on the West side of Great Gable when we were there, scrambling about, on May 31st. Little did we know he was wearing a GoPro. The video is edited down to just under 5 minutes but the rescue probably took longer. To date the video has had over 36,000 views. Watching Ricky in action is the closest most of us will get to knowing what it’s like to clamber about on a fell side in what looks like extremely exposed (potentially dangerous) conditions. He is fell running royalty (but I could be wrong) and in my book a Bodhisattva, tah boot.
Can you spot the lamb and the man? Towards right of middle.
The chap stopped on his way down the scree to pass the time of day and answer my (predictable) question. What are you doing with that lamb?Taking it down to the farm, he replied but it looks like the lamb found its mother before reaching bottom. According to the video, right at the end.
And here is the video I recorded at the end of the day where I mention the lamb rescuing incident. We were impressed.
Behind this post is much pondering on why I, and others, do what we do. And the meaning we attribute to our lives and the living of it. Rio ’16 has had me thinking.
Here now is an Out and About post on my most recent walk in Cumbria. (And I should mention that around an hour into a long walk I generally stop and think about turning back! The why question is there but there is a deeper one and it is around the matter of meaning. I’ll work on this theme for a while.
X Marks where picture may have been taken…
This map marked in red is not the entire route I took. I cut the walk short by taking a route which included going past a small unnamed Tarn, several stone shelters on it’s rim and on up to Nan Bield Pass. Where I turned right and joined the marked route eventually making High Street and Racecourse Hill. The ridge marked with a X (marking more or less where the photograph was taken) looked dauntingly long and exposed (i.e. dangerous). Consulting a chap on the path who looked ‘professional’ he assured me that if I’d done Striding Edge I’d have no problem. Wondered, as I walked on, if it counted if I’d walked/balanced along the Edge when I was 14!
Blea Water and the long ridge down to Haweswater Reservour.
A good afternoon/evening out on the fells on Tuesday. Clearly there had been heavy rain early in the day with waterfalls gushing and in several places becks had spilled out across the land washed rocks and mud across the paths. Caution called for every step of the way. The most dangerous time is when close to completing a walk. Easy to get over-confident and miss footing or trip. The horse running for the stable as the late Rev. Mildred would say as we drove rather too fast along the lanes leading to Reading Priory. Back in 1992 that would be. This post is for her. She taught me so much.
A reminder that caution is needed on and in the mountains. Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team has been in the local news recently having recorded 86 ‘incidents’ in 2016 with 52 call-outs. Reading their site and the kinds of trouble people can get into makes for salutary reading.
With mention of Wasdale my mind goes to the 31st May and our walk up and around Great Gable and the chap who came running down a scree with a rescued lamb under his arm. Turns out he had a GoPro on and recorded the rescue. I’ll link to that tomorrow…
This sculpture called Water Cut suits the mood of the morning, I find it uplifting and remember well the day I hiked up to see it high above the River Eden in the Mallerstang Valley in Eastern Cumbria. June 30th 2013.
The space carved between the two vertical pillars creates the shape of a meandering river in the sky and provides a ‘window’ onto the real river in the valley below. It also symbolises the power of the river Eden cutting through the rock on its journey through East Cumbria and our own human journeys through the rural landscape and through life.
Rivers?
held in a direction
by the banks
in dynamic opposition.
A positive thing.
Uh! And it is raining again – those rivers will rise and run fast. Let’s see now, the weather forecast for the rest of the week. Sunshine and showers it is.
Sir Anthony Gormley’s Another Place, Crosby
I’ve responded to comments this morning, sometimes at length. I do love to hear from readers. Especially good to hear from people I’ve lost touch with as well as those I interact with reasonably frequently too.
It has been an especially active ten days doing things with people both with Buddhist friends and family (cousins). There will be more mountain and vegetation photos to come. Inter Acting. Just finished a conversation with one cousin about paying full attention and how difficult that is given the many calls on her time. We talked about full attention not being dependent on time constraint.
In a certain way the installation Another Place speaks of this. I think.
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
