My River runs to thee… My River wait reply
(Emily Dickinson)
Today was another walk along the Severn Way. No rain and the sun coming through the trees made patterns on the path, which was on the whole dry. The river itself was running at least a foot higher than usual after the recent rain, I was informed by one riverside resident.
I started at Grimley Church with Bob. This section had been a trying one for Hannah 7 years ago. Muddy with poorly marked paths and misdirections it was one of the ‘there be dragons’ sections of the Severn Way. Bob’s phone app would help us to get round any recurrence of that problem, we hoped. Having negotiated that section we were glad to see that a community cafe had opened in the intervening years and was serving delicious breakfast sandwiches.
Next door was the office of Faith at Work in Worcestershire, the local workplace chaplaincy. It’s good to know there is still such a multidimensional chaplaincy in this area.
I called into St Martin’s Church Holt before getting to Holt Bridge and crossing over to the path on the other bank of the river. The Spring is not yet over but Summer is coming on and so the bluebells are nearly finished here whilst the wild garlic is at its pongy-ist best. There are still lambs in some fields and in another a groups of Shetland ponies. But it is mostly green: every possible green.
I met a few people walking in the other direction and eventually one of those was Bob. We stopped at Lincomb Lock for a picnic and from there the stroll into Stourport on Severn was easy enough. The town is well know for its locks and basins of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal built at the end of the 18th century.
As the river glides by there are many signs of its earlier activity:
The debris caught in roots and branches,
The rock cliffs and muddy paths,
The locks of the canal builders still working today.
Walking through the green,
I pray for the people who draw life from the river, for both work and leisure;
God, grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.
JAL 11.05.2019
Day 36 of the End to End, Grimley Church to Stourport on Severn.