Sunday didn’t look promising. Low cloud. Snow on the high fells. Bitterly cold. Undaunted we went forth climbing into the silver mist. We talked we walked.Met adventurers. A young wild camper descending after a night out. A chap carrying his bike because the trail was too steep and too rough to ride. The same path we were walking.
Interestingly this walk was not so testing. No ‘top’ to gaze at. No worries about can I make it or not. There is merit in not seeing where you are going.
But the beautiful silver mist cleared as we walked down and I looked up! Goodness if I had known how far into the sky we would be walking I’d have perhaps decided to turn back.
So. There’s a lesson for life. Not having your goal in sight, aids peace if mind while on the journey. Having a compass and map and somebody aboard who knows how to use them are essential for winter walks on the fells.
We all love those heart warming animal rescue stories. I do anyway? Love the stories of gulls falling into vats of curry in South Wales this summer. Ending up bright orange and in need of a wash! We all would. Lots of stories to smile along with. The oversized Toad stuck in some decking in Norwich and the sheep with her head stuck in a trafic cone. One does wonder…..!
Down on the edge of the Thames in evening light to visit an exhibition. Georgia O’Keeffe retrospective. Sitting on a step resting my feet saw the neon sign and then the artists write up (bit blurred). Left me pondering.
London is abuzz and it’s been a good couple of days. Notable was a visit to US Embassy for visa interview this morning. Even pleasant.
Last night I stayed on a 35 ft narrow boat (that’s NOT a barge), beside a canal, beside up market residential development. Beside train tracks running out of St Pancras mainline station. North London. The outfit, complete with canoe on the roof, owned by Julia a friend is tied up in a marina with its own dry dock. Started in the 1950 when this area was probably an industrial wasteland.
Right in the heart of north London homely pealing paint and rust co exist with chrome and speed. But for how much longer since this is a prime location which could easily go ‘up market. And price the current boaters out of the market. Life where ever you are and how ever the rain is stopped from coming in, is precarious. That’s the attraction, for me.
Somehow I am hearted by this pocket of cruising enthusiasts. Narrow boat people. ‘Did you feel that vibration under the boat in the middle of the night’? enquired Julia after my dreaming sleep on the bunk at the sharp end. Turns out not only are trains running just behind the boat there is a main line to Brighton tunneled underneath the marina.
It has been a great 24 hour adventure to the big city.
