{"id":752,"date":"2022-05-24T17:21:24","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T17:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/?p=752"},"modified":"2022-05-24T17:21:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T17:21:24","slug":"celebrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/2022\/05\/24\/celebrate\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this blog I will celebrate the first two days of the #GreatCentralRouteBack from Marylebone Station. No, we didn’t walk it all. First there was a train to Marylebone which was originally the London terminus of the Great Central line. The first train ran in 1899.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On your marks…. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We got off one at West Ruislip to walk back to Denham via Ickenham. Bob grew up with this railway quite literally a back drop to his childhood as it ran at the bottom of the garden. We had a few HS2 works to contend with which meant one of the footpaths was rerouted. Eventually we met the Grand Union Canal at Bridge 182 in the Colne Valley Country Park, a part of the #GrandWalkOut I was walking exactly a week ago. We stopped for lunch at the Denham Visitors Centre.
Our afternoon route was not railway related as we drove along the A40 into Buckinghamshire across the Thame Valley. There’s was something of a mix up over our B and B so we carried onto Winslow where we found room at the Bell Hotel, and some very nice pies.
Day two began at Quainton, named after Queen Edith, consort of Edward the Confessor. It has a lovely windmill and a 15th century preaching Cross. The windmill was celebrating the 100th birthday of Dorothy which proved relevant later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Windmill of the Day at Quainton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We went onto Quainton Road Station where the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre resides. The station is closed to main line traffic and Network Rail is currently taking up the track.
It is in Railway Centres like this that the forgotten corners of history are celebrated: a steam car made in Birmingham, in 1951, to run on diesel which was used on Egyptian National Railways until 1962 is awaiting restoration as is Janice, a large steam engine that, made in 1954, worked on South African Railways. There’s much more of course, piles of this and that which is bound to come in handy some day but which should definitely not be wasted.
There were plenty of opportunities to explain our #GreatCentralRouteBack one of which resulted in a conversation with a man who’s father had been a porter at the station ‘back in the day’. He turned out to be Dorothy’s grandson.
He also told us quite a bit about the local section of disused line Bob had hoped to walk. So I set Bob down in Westcott village whilst I went onto Ashendon, where I visited the church, and then to the junction of the former line on the way to Wooton Underwood. I did some rooting around whilst Bob walked there, a period of the day which was more than a bit showery and included a thunderstorm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hanging on… <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We moved onto a different line. The former line between Princes Risborough and Thame is now a Sustrans route called the Phoenix Trail. Bob dropped me near Hinton Crossing and I walked to Towersey. The skies were dramatic and thunder rumbled around but the sun came out again again by the time I’d reached my destination.
\nThere’s more than a tinge of celebration about the Rule of St Benedict, I’m glad to say. These are the bits I like: what psalms to include in worship, how often to shout Alleluia. There’s so much to celebrate in life. Happy Birthday Dorothy and all those celebrating today! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From my remembered bible: God’s voice is like thunder, breaking the trees, and making calves jump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come on and celebrate!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janet Lees, unexpectedly resting at Winslow, 24th May 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this blog I will celebrate the first two days of the #GreatCentralRouteBack from Marylebone Station. No, we didn’t walk it all. First there was a train to Marylebone which was originally the London terminus of the Great Central line. The first train ran in 1899. We got off one at West Ruislip to walk … Continue reading “Celebrate!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-journey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":756,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions\/756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}