Notes from Bambi

Day 22 was the final day of the #GrandWalkOut so perhaps it’s no surprise that we would walk backwards. Up until now we had taken our bridges in ascending order but for the last day we would work backwards.

There were two main reasons:public transport made it easier to get to Brentford and we wanted to end in Southall with a celebratory meal.

At Brentford we passed a depot of old red buses before reaching the canal path. It was the first example of looking backwards on today’s route.

Lock 101 is the last lock on the Grand Union Canal. The path back included lots of waterfowl many with babies, an odd floating walkway that gave us the effect of walking on water and several more locks including the Hanwell flight.

At lock 90 at Norwood the bus stop for the E5 to Southall was alongside the tow path so I took the bus option. Bob walked onto Bridge 202 which was the one we had to link up with from Day 21. We met near The Green in Southall, a place Bob and I spent some time during our ministerial training, where we had a lovely meal, before catching the 607 bus back to Uxbridge where we got some ice cream. That’s the best way to complete any walk on a hot day.

With a few days of leisure in London over the weekend, Monday will see us starting the #GreatCentralRouteBack. This will, as near as possible, follow the route of the Great Central Railway. We will walk some parts of the route where that’s still possible, and ride others. Hope to see you there!

From my remembered bible: How many more stories are there?

Alleluia

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Note that when we have finished reading through the Rule of St Benedict, we start again!

Janet Lees, Southall, 19.05.2022

While Bob was in a train back to Manchester for the day, I was sidetracked from the #GrandWalkOut to walk in the Colne Valley. Here are some photos from the walk today.

From my remembered bible: Taste and see, God is good.

Still walking

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Colne Valley Regional Park, 17.05.2022

Day 21 of the #GrandWalkOut started at the Coy Carp and Bridge 177 of the Grand Union Canal. I began walking and Bob drove onto Denham Country Park and started there.

There was as ever a lot to see, particularly when it came to waterfowl. There were more boats moored along the canalside. I also saw a chicken of the woods, said to be a tasty fungus.

I came across the site of the proposed Colne Valley viaduct for the HS2 line. Not yet built, it has attracted a lot of attention and protestor had attached objections to the fence at the site. Another example in which the natural environment looses out to human activity, this time for the gain of 10 minutes on the journey time from London to Birmingham.

I arrived at Denham deep lock to find that Fran’s Tea Room is not open on Mondays. I was reluctant to hang about until Wednesday to try it. However, the cafe at the Visitors Centre was open and I got some lunch there.

My section of the walk finished for today I planned to catch up with Bob by car. But a series of miscommunications meant I misunderstood the meeting point and went to Brentford. Oops! We were still 6 miles apart. I retraced my route and gathered him up from Southall High Street. He had made it to bridge 202.

It was the first time this walk that we’d manage to miss each other so once in 21 days wasn’t so bad. We were soon back at our new accommodation at Uxbridge where we will be based for the final sections of the #GrandWalkOut this week.

From my remembered bible: Be happy, I have found my lost sheep.

Sorry, I missed you.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, somewhere between Southall and Brentford, 16.05.2022

Day 20 of the #GrandWalkOut and we’re pushing on down the Grand Union Canal to London. It’s a strange kind of work, not exactly a work out and not something that anyone is going to notice, unlike that long ago heavy work that first made the canal network. I started at bridge 159 and King’s Langley and less than half a mile later I’d crossed under the M25.

It was going to be a hot day and lots of boaters were frantically turning handles at lock gates as they nimbly jumped on and off their boats. Sometimes two boats would squeeze into the same lock. At one there was even a warning about crocodiles.

More common were waterfowl of different kinds who seemed to work hard at paddling up and down and quacking. Grove Bridge, number 164, stood out a bit as being a very fine structure. It seems it was restored by Concrete Bob in the 1980s.

There were boaters and walkers to speak to. At one point we discussed a memorial to two workers who had died making a sewer in the 1970s.

At last I was at bridge 167 at Cassiobury Park, now a lovely public park (it was previously the estate of the Earl of Essex) and I hopped on the miniature train for a quick trip, before collecting the car.

Some miles further on Bob had made it to bridge 177 where a cutely named pub, the Coy Carp provided a good resting and lunching spot.

There was work going on round us all the time, and we were also part of it. Not just passive admirers, our work contributed to the work of others, an interlocking system in which most of the contributors are unaware of each other. When we try to live in community according the Rule of St Benedict we try to increase our awareness of the roles played by others and ourselves. How good it would be to raise that awareness to include all humans and beyond that all living species as we collaborate for the thriving of our shared planet.

From my remembered bible: let everything that has (any) breath (left) praise God.

My praise is in my steps.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, West Hyde near Harefield, 14.05.2022.

Day 19 of the #GrandWalkOut was the day we said goodbye to our comfy glamp at Bragenham. Not just a Heron’s Retreat, it suited us very well. Last night we heard the local muntjac deer barking. Bob enjoyed waiting for the Caledonian Sleeper service to pass by.

We drove to King’s Langley and parked by bridge 159. I started walking back to 157 while Bob went back to Hemel Hempstead on the train and started from bridge 149 to bridge the gap to 157.

Meanwhile I went to the laundrette in King’s Langley High Street. Waiting is associated with launderettes. In my childhood it was a weekly ritual. Nowadays we only use them on epic walks of this kind. Bob came along just as I completed the wash, dry and fold up, to carry the clean things back to Bridge 159.

We stopped at a local farm shop on the way. There were a great number of Red Kites in the area, surfing the wind, soaring and banking and just hanging in the air.

After lunch in a nearby park we drove back to Bourne End to our next accommodation. We spent a restful part of the afternoon have a cool drink at a pub waiting to check in. Later we walked back to the same pub for an excellent Friday evening meal. Fish and chips for me of course.

We are now a week away from our end point in London. Walking and waiting go well together in my experience.

From my remembered bible: The waiting ones will be lifted up on eagles wings.

Wait with me.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Kings Langley, 13.05.2022.

Day 18 of the #GrandWalkOut started at Tring Station, a short walk from bridge 135. As we set off a group practicing for their DofE were assembling in the car park.

The walk was well stewarded by herons. We saw several including a boat called Heron. We met someone looking for kingfishers but we didn’t see any of those. We did see a pair of grey wagtails. All were enjoying the air.

We also met someone on a mobility scooter who was reminiscing about the old tramway to the gas works at Berkhamsted that he’d seen as a boy. Bob found some photos of it on his phone and we shared those with him before finding an information sign a little further on. The gas plant made gas by extracting it from coal, making coke, the whole cycle being just one contributor to climate change. It ceased at this plant in the 1960s when most of the UK converted to natural gas. But these are just some of the ways in which we are still heating up the climate.

At Berkhamsted there were some excellent fish and chips at the station and the news we were only 33 miles from London. Whilst I visited the castle and the shops, Bob walked onto Bridge 149 at Hemel Hempstead. We both caught the same train back to Tring.

We took a short detour to Aston Hill on the way back. Just one of the places near Tring that Bob enjoyed visiting in the Chilterns. A trig point in a field had us as high as Mouselow Castle in Glossop. So much for hills.

From my remembered bible : I look up at the hills from where I get help. God aids me day and night, never sleeping.

I breathe in, I breathe out.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Aston Hill, 12.05.2022.

Day 16 of the #GrandWalkOut and I am still walking through this remarkable space. It’s green in so many ways but it’s also grey and blue and yellow and although it’s continuous it’s also always changing. Just the kind of environment for an aspiring Dr Who.

I started walking at bridge 107 and walked on to bridge 110 where I also visit St Mary’s Church. That it was closed was to be something of a theme for the day as far as inside spaces were concerned. Bob had by now started at bridge 110 and was walking to bridge 126 so I had plenty of time to fit in a few other visits.

Pitstone Windmill is the earliest dated in England (1627) and was closed, but looked wonderful in a big green space. A sparrow hawk and a red kite enjoyed the grey space above my head.

The old church at Pitstone was also closed, but there the green space was dotted with yellow. Churchyards have been noted as some of the most biodiverse places in England, each a potential ancient undisturbed oasis.

By now, Bob was nearing bridge 126. We met there in a less glamorous space beloved of fly tippers. No, the countryside does not benefit from your old fridge.

We drove back through Ivinghoe to Whipsnade as I wanted to visit another space I’d heard about: the Tree Cathedral.

It was gorgeous. Whilst some of the trees now show maturity and age others are younger. Some peel, others blossom or prickle. It’s delicious. Bob took us back via the Icknield Trail, an old track towards Bison Hill and a view over the plain.

It had been a totally delightful spacious day. Glory to God.

From my remembered bible: The trees of the field shall applaud with joy.

Thank you.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Ivinghoe, 10.05.2022.

It’s Day 15 of the #GrandWalkOut and we said goodbye to Canons Ashby after breakfast. We drove back to Simpson village on the edge of Milton Keynes and I started walking again at bridge 92.

There were a lot of young birds about today with their parents. The news over the weekend is that Spring is now up to three weeks earlier in Britain. We certainly saw plenty of signs along the Grand Union Canal.

Whilst the season may be progressing faster, I’m sure I’m getting slower. I seemed to be walking slower than ever today. After a stop to lunch at the lock at Stoke Hammond and a drink at the Three Locks pub we made it to the end of today’s route at bridge 107. A new glamp for the week called Heron’s Retreat was thankfully not far away.

Speed isn’t everything. Somethings take a long time to take effect. Reducing the effects if climate change, even if we really do the tings recommended like reducing the use of fossil fuels, will take some time. It can be quicker to mess things up then sort out the mess.

Building community isn’t usually a quick fix either. The Rule of St Benedict doesn’t expect things to go smoothly or in a flash. Reading the Rule together is an ongoing prompt on how to live that comes round several times a year like a new season.

From my remembered bible : There’s a time for every season.

Come with me

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Bragenham Farm, 09.05.2022.

Day 14 of the #GrandWalkOut saw us return to Milton Keynes and Bob started walking at bridge 71 on the Grand Union Canal.

The Canal came before the new town, which is a mear 55 years old this year. I drove to one of the other ‘villages’ which were incorporated into the larger town in 1967. This one was Simpson, by bridge 92 of the Grand Union Canal.

On the way I was aware of two things: it was very green in Springtime and there are a lot of roundabouts.

I then walked back along the canal towards Bob and we met at pub called the Warbler on the Wharf for a drink and snack.

The return trip to Bridge 92 was a little faster. It was a good day for spotting wildlife, waterfowl including cygnets, goslings and ducklings, butterflies and a heron.

Fringed by a wide green corridor with many paths and cycle routes it seemed very green from my position. I hope that impression holds up in the rest of the town.

Milton Keynes has a long history before the development. A number of religious communitites had settled in the area and each of the original villages has a parish church. It shows what can grow from small communities being bought together. It was quiet and relaxing along the canal tow path and we completed our route by mid afternoon.

We have a rest day tomorrow.

From my remembered bible : And the leaves are for the healing of the Nations.

Pray for the nations of the world and for peace.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Day 14, Milton Keynes.