July 2020 – Page 2

Knowing our limits

Day 95 of the End to End in 2019 continued along the Great Glen Way. The weather was better than the day before, the breakfast and sandwiches excellent. The route was lovely: a disused railway line for some of the way which was fairly easy going.

Some folks express surprise when I say I’ve walked LEJOG. After all, carrying several surplus stones as I do, I don’t look the epitome of fitness. Maybe they imagine it’s some kind of ultra event for the super fit. I’d say, that depends on how you do it. But this section was no more difficult that a walk on the Longdendale Trail which also includes a disused railway line.

Bridge of Oich is a place of three bridges, one of which, in the care of Historic Scotland, has a notice that says ‘Only 50 people allowed on the bridge at one time’. Perhaps it does get busy here and days of 50 people piling on the bridge in some sort of record attempt may have sometimes occurred. But not today. There were few people about and we were 48 short of the limit. I wonder if there was ever a party on the Bridge of Oich?

Meanwhile in 2020 in Longdendale I’m trying to get back up to walking fitness after my unscheduled stay in hospital now over a week ago. It’s easy to do the odd mile or two from our front, or back, door, and it’s quite easy to do anything up to 9 or 10 miles actually, but I’m a bit out of practice. So I set off for a morning walk , slowly. With lots of butterflies in the valley at the moment, that was fine as I could note them as I went along. It’s another 6 days before I’m allowed back into general circulation.

This year has been a year of numbers: those who have caught the virus, those who have died, days in quarantine, days in ICU, metres of social distance, number of people in your bubble or your shop. Our world has certainly got smaller and we are in physical contact with far fewer people on a regular basis. Tomorrow is our 29th Wedding Anniversary: I am thankful.

From last year’s blog,the remembered bible from Psalm 139
You see me, whether I am working or resting and you know everything I do.
Even before I speak, you already know what I will say.

You have me in your eye,
you hold me by the hand,
you guide me through these steps,
you nurture me in body and mind:
You know my limits,
the way my human frailty works.
Keep me mindful, caring and supportive,
that others I meet may reach theirs
and together we can thrive.
JAL: 19.07.2020 in Longdendale.

Common Ground

Day 94 of the End to End in 2019 continued along the Great Glen Way beside Loch Lochy. The first thing it had in common with today, one year later in 2020, was rain. We’ve had a bit of rain here for the last few days or so and it seems set in again today. Probably because England are playing cricket against the West Indies at Old Trafford in Manchester, just down the road. However, it does give us a chance to relive our past cricketing glories: Bob’s out for a duck, my epic umpiring decisions. These are just some of the wickets of common ground we stand on.

PENTACON DIGITAL CAMERA (a cricket match in 2011)

Before the walk, a visit to the commando Memorial at Spean Bridge. I always try to visit when I’m near here: a statue of three men standing on common ground. Lochaber was the training ground for the Commandos during WW2 and my route through the Great Glen would take me alongside many of those places, but at a much slower pace.

It was quite possibly also one of the coldest days of the walk, probably because I was wet through in quite a short time and didn’t dry out until I got to the car at Laggan Locks. I wasn’t alone, although there were fewer people walking than on the WHW. Rain makes things green so there was plenty to see and the path was not difficult. At Laggan Locks there was a welcome place for hot drinks, although the open sided design meant it was almost as windy and wet inside as out.

Nowadays, in 2020, I walk up and down the Longdendale Valley, overlapping my daily routes one after another, sometimes going round clockwise, sometimes anticlockwise. Bob saw a lot of young people setting off on the DofE expeditions this morning. Such encounters contribute to our common ground as does taking part in the Great Big Butterfly Count this month (photo below is wood vetch, I think).

There are sweet peas in my garden, just as there were at Laggan Locks a year ago. The drips of rain may be different but this is definitely common ground.

From the remembered gospel: And the rain came down.

Steadily falls the rain, at least it does here.
We think of the people of China currently struggling against rising flood waters;
We think of the people of Palestine, currently struggling for just water rights;
Where wells are empty, may they be filled,
Where rivers are full, may they return to safe levels.
Remind us of the common ground on which we stand,
as we pray in solidarity with those who pray today.
May God’s mercy and love flow between us all.

JAL: 18.07.2020 in Longdendale.

Steaming along

Day 93 of the End to End in 2019 began early at Roy Bridge Station. Hannah was travelling south and we were waving her off. Roy Bridge station is very small, but it has now been used for arrivals or departures by all three of us (I used it in 2012).

The West Highland Line has several small stations. Another is Banavie, at the foot of Neptune’s Staircase on the Caledonian Canal, which was also part of today’s walking route. So it was good to know the Jacobite Express, a fairly well known steam train, was coming by around 10.15 am which was about the same time as I was due to be there. I was able to get some good photos as it chuffed through the otherwise deserted station on its way to Mallaig.

Day 93 was also a good day for free biscuits. I was given some at a small cafe near the bottom of the staircase and they kept me going for a bit along the side of the Caledonian Canal. I was walking up the Great Glen and this would be my route for quite a few days, longer even than on the WHW.

Towards the end of the walk, during which I’d seen quite a few butterfly orchids, it began to rain on the green landscape surrounding me. But what is rain except not yet vapourised water. I kept on steaming along towards Loch Lochy.

Last year I chose this remembered psalm: From Psalm 68
Holy One, you made abundant rain fall and restored your worn-out land.

The psalmist was writing in an arid landscape for which rain was essential to life. It’s also true here in the Highlands: temperate rain forest and, as we shall see later, blanket bog all need rain. Earlier in the Spring of 2020 it was very dry in Derbyshire but since June the rain has returned and the reservoirs have filled up again.

Yet quite often we see rain as something to avoid. I’m not that keen on walking in the rain, something that would not decrease in my time spent walking on the wet Great Glen Way. But I do admire water. Our ancestors would have made offerings to water. Clean water is a basic essential for life. Solid, liquid or gas: water is the stuff for me.

In this landscape, water makes its mark:
streams flow, pools fill, leaves drip.
As I walk through the rain,
I see the green land and rejoice.
I am grateful for water.

JAL: 17.07.2020 in Longdendale.

Touching the sky

Day 92 of the End to End in 2019 was the last on the WHW. It had been, as expected a demanding route, but awesome. I’d been going slower than most walkers I’d seen but that wasn’t a problem. I’d seen some amazing stuff and even seemed to touch the sky at times.

The last section began in the middle of nowhere, a place where forestry operations had been going on for some time. This had left quite a few stumps in the ground but they did make handy resting places. Eventually I was over the hump and on a forestry track down towards Fort William. I could almost touch Ben Nevis on the other side of the valley, which was itself touching the sky. I could see the track up to the summit of the mountain but I didn’t take the route up that day.

Instead I met Bob and we had an ice cream in the Ben Nevis information centre. There was a short stretch to link up with the Great Glen Way, which was the next section of the route.

Moving onto 2020, the sky has been a theme here for several weeks. First it was rainbows, of which I’ve made a quite a few since the Spring. The sky often lowers itself towards the hills around here or opens itself up to more cosmic distances. Reflections are part of the beauty of the valley. This time last week, waking up in Tameside Hospital, I was glad of the sky, which was pretty much all I could see except for a large chimney. Today it is once again grey, as it has been for several days. Bits of lighter and darker grey come and go and there are also drips. My mum’s favourite hymn was: ‘Glad that I live am I, that the sky is blue.’ It continues ‘After the sun the rain; after the rain the sun; this is the way of life, since the world begun’.

From the remembered bible, psalm 19: Wow! How amazing is the sky, how clearly it shows what God can do: from each dawn announcement to nightfall it is repeated.

You repeat yourself, Cosmic God,
making your love clear everyday.
How gently the sky touches me,
confirming my place in the universe.
How urgent the imperative to respond,
treading carefully on the earth,
enjoying the caress of wind and rain,
embracing the day.

JAL: 16.07.2020 in Longdendale.

Multiple Adventures

Day 91 of the End to End in 2019 was a day of multiple adventures. It was necessary to be a bit creative as we couldn’t get all three of us and all the things in the small car at once, and we had to move campsites today. So we came up with a plan that meant train lovers, Bob and Hannah, both got a bit of train time, I got to walk and we could meet up at the end of the day and retell our stories to each other. Like all of the best adventures, it ended with ice cream.

Hannah opted for a train trip to Corrour, a small station on the West Highland Line, which had a nice cafe, walks and trains. Bob took me to Kinlochleven to start my walk. Still on the WHW, day 91 was through a large valley called The Larigmoor. It was reputedly the escape route used by the McGregors in 1645 (who were running away from the Campbells). In 2020 there has been a lot of talk about history, but I bet there’s plenty of history in these islands most people don’t know. I particularly think the English are ignorant of Scottish history. They may know the bit about the spider, but little else.

The Larigmoor was an amazing walk, with its steep sides, frequent streams to ford and diverse plant life. It was one of the little talked of parts of the WHW. Not so dramatic as Rannoch Moor or challenging as the Devil’s Staircase, but still amazing. It was also a bit intimidating. Although not that far, in a large valley walking on your own it’s easy to wonder if you can walk that far.

In 2020 my recent stay in hospital was also anxiety provoking so I can understand folks are not using them so much as before lock down. I certainly didn’t expect to be admitted and I think the absence of visitors (it would just be too risky) also makes it feel a bit isolating. But I was safe and well cared for and discharged home in due course.

in 2019 I was thinking about this section of Psalm 23:

Even though I walk through Death’s valley, I am not afraid, for you are there for me.
Waves of anxiety come and go with me, mostly due to over thinking about others.
There is so much of life we cannot control, of course. Jesus doesn’t avoid Death’s valley, for himself or us. He is familiar with the landscape. He’s ready to walk through it again.

One year later, it is of course still very pertinent, just as I suspect it might have been in 1645 in the Larigmoor.

Companion Christ, you know this landscape:
your familiarity is a support to me in times of high anxiety.
There is something about walking that makes it a great adventure:
Even thought I am fearful at times, I am ready to walk on with you.

JAL 15.07.2020 in Longdendale.

Going up

Day 90 of the End to End in 2019 included the Devil’s Staircase on the WHW. It certainly is a devil of a climb, especially in hot weather, which was the only way I knew it given it was a sunny day. This would take me to the highest point on the WHW and on the whole LEJOG.

People talk about this staircase, but of course it’s not as bad as all that providing you take things gently. And of course, it’s not a staircase. I can confirm that I didn’t meet Thora Hird on a stair lift going up, or Alan Bennett anxiously waiting for her at the top.

I did see two playful ravens, who I called Caw and Grunt, for the sounds they made as they soared and tumbled together in the sky. Of course, what goes up must come down, so having made it to the top, I took the gentler path down to Kinlochleven meeting Bob on the way, for a well earned ice cream at the National Ice Climbing Centre, at the end.

Lots of things go up. At the moment COVID19 figures continue upwards, both the rate of infection and the death rate. I’m not really a numbers person. But many tragic events are known by numbers: 7/7, the 96, the 72. These numbers are tattooed on our lives but each number represents a much bigger thing: loved persons lost, grief and sorrow, mental and physical health challenges, lives changed forever. So much that numbers cannot contain. It makes me sad that we hear so little about those lost to COVID19.

(photo: a memorial on the WHW)

As one who has visited the CWGC cemeteries in Europe and Turkey, I’m used to seeing huge numbers of people remembered. Thiepval is not my favourite monument, standing as it does in the Somme landscape. But I’ll never forget hearing the last post played there by one of our students in a hail storm. The Menin Gate is set in the city of Ypres and the whole place has a very different feel. Although the last post ceremony itself has become a much greater magnet to visitors, I cannot criticise that. We must remember.

(photo: A quilt I am making to remember the 72 people who died in the Grenfell Tower Fire)

How will we remember COVID19? Well I’ll have a lot of quilts and a lot of words, whatever else happens. As for the answer, it’s a hard thing to decide with numbers still going up. One community in Wythenshawe, Manchester, is creating a COVID19 memorial garden. Each one remembered. We all have to eat.

From the remembered gospel: Jesus said ‘Do this to remember me’.

Bread breaker, eating and drinking are so everyday, but you urge us to remember:
To remember you, companion in life and death.
As I do that now, I remember other companions,
Bread takers, both the living and the dead:
Breathe on us that we may be healed,
Hold our memories that we may be set free.

JAL 14.07.2020 in Longdendale.

One family walking

Day 89 of the End to End in 2019 was across Rannoch Moor on the WHW to Kingshouse Hotel. When people asks ‘What was your favourite day of LEJOG?’, I’m pretty sure that Bob and Hannah would both say this part of their respective walks in 2003 and 2012. I find it much harder to choose a favourite day, but this one is special, mostly because I had both of them with me.

When Bob first told us about the walk across Rannoch Moor in 2003 it seemed vast, and indeed it is. With its countless lochans and bogs, flowers and insects, the path is not that strenuous. Bob and I first went on a walk together in January 1990, in Oxfordshire, on the Ridgeway. After Hannah was born and we went to South Africa in 1994, Bob walked with her in a carrier on his back until she could walk for herself. She was 9 years old when Bob walked LEJOG in 2003, and sometimes walked with him. In 2012 she walked LEJOG herself and there has been plenty of walking together and apart between and around these times.

I began to walk more as I got older. I was probably a bit under active in general and this activity suited me. But I didn’t know if I could walk LEJOG: Bob and Hannah always seemed better walkers than me. Now I know that as long as I go at my own pace, I can do it and enjoy it.

After my three day stay in hospital I hope to get back to walking and eventually finish the TPT eastwards this year. Yesterday was a lovely walk and today I’ll visit a few scarecrows scattered through the village.

From the remembered bible, psalm 139: God, you know me better than anyone.

Even the smallest creature in the cosmos,
even the lone walker in a vast landscape,
whoever, we are you know us, God of all.
May we make many more journeys in your safe keeping.

JAL: 13.07.2020 in Longdendale.

A good day for a walk

Day 88 of the End to End in 2019 was once more on the West Highland Way. I knew it would be a good walk because we’d actually all done this section several years ago when Hannah was a child, sometime after Bob’s LEJOG. It was another good day for a walk with lovely view of Ben Dorian and plenty of insect life to admire in the wide range of plants along the way.

Bridge of Orchy is a small cheerful station, and even if the Caledonian Sleeper was running two hours late, a good place for a snooze or picnic lunch. It is now a small hostel. The Inveroran hotel still did excellent cake (and long may that be true) and was a good place for some afternoon tea at the end of the day’s walking.

Fast forward 1 year to 2020 and it was a still a good day for a walk. After three unexpected days staying in Tameside Hospital, it was good to be back in the valley and out in the beautiful scenery of Longdendale. I took a slow walk along a short section of the TPT. I enjoy the beautiful reflections in the reservoir and the clear air as well as seeing quite a few butterflies.

I understand there’s a local scarecrow festival in the village, but time tomorrow to report on that.

From the remembered bible, psalm 139: You know when I sit down and when I get up.

When air is clear and skies are windows,
I praise the Creator, air-maker.
When air is troubled and breathing is hard,
I praise the Son, air-breather.
When air is ruffled, rushing past, disturbed,
I praise the Holy Spirit, air-mover.
I rest here and praise the Holy Three,
Embraced as I am by the beautiful clear air.

JAL: 12.07.2020 on a bench in Longdendale.

Insect life

Day 87 of the End to End was my third full day on WHW and would take me through Tyndrum where we had camped overnight.

This had allowed us to become reacquainted with the midges but not with the red squirrels which were shyer. If I have any LEJOG regrets it’s not seeing red squirrels, although I did see lots of other fabulous things.

Tyndrum is an essential stop on the WHW strung out along the main road with everything the walker requires. We’ve stopped there quite a few times, although it can be quite midgy.

I was able to have a lunchtime rest at the campsite before continuing on to a lay by a short distance up the Way towards Bridge of Orchy. I was getting further into the hills.

One year on, it’s day 3 of my unplanned stay at Tameside Hospital. As the world carries on outside, inside is a hive of continuous activity.

I was brought up by two NHS nurses, my mum and her sister, my aunt, who was a ward sister. Her ward was called Lazarus Ward, which seems a highly appropriate name. Things were always busy, but in the years since I was last in hospital I’d forgotten quite what this is like.

Things bleep, observations are carried out, medicine dispensed, care offered, we are fed and watered. It’s a huge undertaking.

Visitors stay away, hearts beat, tears flow: it’s a cosmos of co-operating energy. Now we breathe together one more time.

From the remembered gospel: Jesus stood outside and shouted ‘Lazarus, come out!’

Cosmic Christ, as you hung on for us,
May we hang on for each other.
May the coming out time come soon and safely.
As the hive Co-operates to produce sweetness,
So may the co-operation of all here,
Find fruit in the sweetness of support given and received.
May new life be shared amongst us.

JAL 11.07.2028 in Tameside Hospital, Ashton-under-Lyne.

Welcome bacon sandwiches

Day 86 of the End to End in 2019 was memorable for lots of reasons. Firstly, I had Hannah and Bob with me at the beginning. Secondly it was on the West Highland Way.

Scotland can be beautiful in the wet. I remember lots of streams tumbling down the hills, some over the path. It was a day of water.

Bob and Hannah got some bacon sandwiches at the Crianlarich station cafe. I was cross, tired, wet and hungry by the time we met. Not a good combination, although I prefer bacon sandwiches to Snickers. Its important to remember the less good bits of LEJOG too.

A bit further on there was an honesty box with chocolate. There were quite a lot of gold banded dragon flies flying around too. When they met me again at the end of the day’s walk, we went for cake in a former church that had been turned into a cafe. That’s one transformation I can recommend.

Fast forward one year and it’s day two in Tameside Hospital. I found myself thinking as I was going through the scanner, about the last time I was involved with a similar amazing machine. My three year old daughter was being scanned as part of a follow up from an earlier illness. I wonder what she’d made of it all at the time: me holding her still as we went through the process.

These days, inside and outside of hospital there seems to be one common feature: anxiety.

From the remembered bible, psalm 55

Morning, noon and night, I call to God for help. God hears those moans, and groans…
Leave your anxiety with God, who is always on your side.

Outside one day, inside the next:
Care is welcome but unknown situations increase anxiety.
Snippets of conversation whirl around me.
The divisions between workers and those cared for is not so obvious at these times. Uniforms are one thing, but voices blend together.
Be with us in each word and phrase,
In each touch and gesture.
Tears and moans are trodden down
Like receding flood water.
Remind us of the free flying dove,
May we imagine safe times and places.

JAL 10.07.2020 in Tameside Hospital, Ashton-under-Lyne.