From Psalm 19:
How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory!
How plainly it shows what God has done!
Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next.
No speech or words are used, no sound is heard;
Yet their message is conveyed to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth.
Day 41 of the End to End began where yesterday’s walk finished: Leegomery Methodist Church near the end of the Ironbridge Way. I started there again around 10am as has become our usual pattern. There are now 80 days left to get to John O’Groats (although I think someone did once go round the world in that time, they weren’t walking). This morning Bob read me the news of someone who is trying to break the LEJOG running record. I’m just walking.
Today was a day of joining up one route with another: from the Ironbridge Way I’m heading for the Shropshire Union Canal (although I won’t get there until tomorrow).
Everyday is different and each has its own encounters and wonderful things. Here are some from today.
Tree of the Day:
It was Bob who introduced this idea when he walked End to End sixteen years ago. Today there were lots of trees that would have made an excellent Tree of the Day. Most were Oaks, which with beeches are my joint favourite trees. Some were individual trees but there were also some lovely stretches of woodland. Here’s a sample of some of the contenders.
(above is the Horse Chestnut Lane and below one oddly shaped tree)
Trees in the Chetwynd and Pulestone area
Creatures great and small:
Orange-tip Butterflies were back, my favourite butterfly. I didn’t see any yesterday and they do have a relatively short flying season so I was glad to see several today. But creature of the day was the male cuckoo or in this case cuckoos. Today was the day we heard the greatest number of cuckoos calling in one day. During the course of the walk I heard at least four.
Venue of the Day:
There were two joint winners today. The first was the Kynnersley Barrow, a small roadside Barrow and shed near Kynnersley Lane, which sold excellent ice cream. I carried one several hundred yards for Bob without it loosing its integrity. Kynnersley Lane was a good place to eat ice cream as it is lined with horse chestnut trees currently in flower.
The other joint winner in the venue category was St Peter’s Church, Edgmond, a lovely Parish church with Norman origins. We ate our picnic in the churchyard, and later met Anne, the church warden inside. There are some notable fittings: the Norman font and the new millennium window were the two I particularly admired. The church has a great reputation for music and is currently looking for an organist and music director, blog readers please note.
Kynnersley Barrow and Edgmond font
Oddest thing of the day: Was certainly the two telegraph poles with these drawing pins on them. Why do these poles have these patterns?
The walk continued via Chetwynd and Pulestone Common where there were lots of beautiful trees. It ended at Camp Cross Roads on a Roman Road: an example of just one of the things the Romans did for us. I then made a brief visit to Buildwas Abbey, the ruins of a Cistercian foundation. And all of this happened on another day walking.
God grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.
JAL 16.05.2019
Day 41 of the End to End from Leegomery Methodist Church to Camp Cross Roads