In training for the Grand Union Canal Walk

I’m planning to walk the Grand Union Canal in July this year. It’s been quite a bit of time since my last long walk. In that time, a family member experienced a health scare and I got divorced. Let’s just say I’m looking forward to the tranquility of another walk. I will be alone this time, which I’m not worried about. Since I did all of the planing, including hotel booking, etc. on all of my other long-distance walks, I don’t think this will be any different in that regard.

I haven’t yet booked my accommodation because I’m a bit stuck on the first night, which has me walking from Paddington Station to Bull’s Bridge (near Heathrow), and along this section of the canal, there just isn’t much that looks appealing within walking distance of the canal. I could try for an Airbnb but I really will need something hearty for dinner so I don’t want to be responsible for making my own food. I suppose I could pick up something at a grocery store on the way – the UK is so good at individual meals. I’m hoping something pops up.

I’ve been training for a few weeks and the weather has been quite cold. My training plan spans 25 weeks and this week I’m targeting a total of 18 miles. For the actual walk itself, I hope to be doing around 11-18 miles a day; My schedule shows a total of of 147 miles, which I hope to cover in about 11 days.

Tonight’s training walk of just over 6 miles was particularly lovely, so it inspired me to write again…

Sometimes, walking at dusk is the best time to walk.

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Day 6: Walking to Bristol on the Kennet & Avon Canal (River Avon)

Distance: 15.9 miles

Bath —> Bristol

Well, I realised sometime yesterday afternoon that we wouldn’t be walking on the Kennet & Avon Canal to Bristol because that canal ends in Bath, when it joins the River Avon. So, we walked to Bristol mostly on the River Avon today with a few shortcuts along the way.

Weather. It’s always top of mind when you’re walking and today was no different. We expected no rain, clouds and some wind. And that’s mostly what we got. It was a pleasant day to walk, overall.

We saw green fields with wildflowers growing in them, the river was wide and pretty spectacular. We passed through some quaint little villages by road…

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One of my strategies for overcoming soreness, especially in my feet, which tends to happen some time in the afternoon, is to imagine my legs are made from elastic; they’re super flexible and bendy. Somehow that allows me to loosen up a bit. I think after around 10-12 miles my legs otherwise start to tighten and that’s when I start to feel strain.

Today, there were some instances where the paths were very narrow and we were surrounded by stinging nettles up to our waists and yes, my fingers did get stung many times as I generally swing my hands by my sides while I’m walking. It might seem strange that this could happen more than once, however, after walking for a few days, my brain is a bit slower and drifts a bit so I am not always fully conscious of what is happening right at my fingertips. Literally. I might be watching birds circling overhead or listening to them singing and trying to identify them, and that is where my mind is instead of paying attention to what my fingers are brushing up against. Eventually, I learned to walk with my hands in my pockets, though my fingers are still itchy in places 🙂

It was a beautiful last day of walking. This week, we’ve been fully immersed in nature most of our waking hours and that has been a true privilege. I hope that my mind will be able to drift back to the scenery along the canal and river, and I’ll remember how I felt just listening to the wind and the birds, and nothing else.

Isolation Journal (Day 125)

Yes, it’s really been that long. And, yes, we’ve really continued to isolate most of the time. England’s shops and restaurants are now open, but we don’t really go into them, except for today. We went into the Petersham Nursery because I’ve been longing to buy some plant supplies. It was quite strange after around 4 months of not shopping (it’s been a long time since we’ve been grocery shopping as well because we’ve figured out how to have everything delivered), to have to deal with avoiding close contact with people while considering which items I wanted to purchase. Also, because of the one-way system, we had to be careful not to dawdle. I don’t want to call it “stressful”, but it really wasn’t fun.

I can’t imagine why people would wait in line to shop for clothes, etc. I’m at a point now, where I just don’t want to buy anything unless I really need it functionally.

So, this month I made a commitment to myself that I wouldn’t watch any movies,TV shows, etc. other than our date-night movie, which takes place on Saturday nights, and we are working our way through the James Bond flicks, so that’s not real is it 🙂

I wanted to be more present and I wanted to use my time more efficiently. Admittedly, June was mostly, in fact, entirely taken up with work activities, so it wasn’t like I’d been binge-watching, but I guess I realized that the limited time I have shouldn’t be taken up with (and I don’t want it to be taken up with watching my screen). Result: I have been cooking more and watching my plants grow a bit more. I’ve also managed to finally mail off some knitting projects that have been complete for more than a month. So this is good.

I stopped writing my isolation journal because it got too personal. The topics we were asked to write about cut too close to the bone, and frankly, life is hard enough at the moment, without having to explore my own emotional fragility. But I have missed writing and sharing, so I will try to pick it up again in my own way.

Today’s prompt: Reflect on all the colors that make up your emotional palette…

Um, yeah no challenge here. What I will say is that for the last two mornings, when I have longed for sleep the most, I have woken up too early. Both times with unpleasant dreams that leave me wondering, why? Why am I having these dreams and when can I return to my normal dead-to-the-world state of sleep?

Here’s one idea: I just finished reading Tim Winton’s Eyrie. Normally, I love his writing. It’s so descriptive and I dive right into it, almost wearing his words. This time it was so different. This story begins as usual…with his rich descriptions…

The building twitched in the wind, gave off its perpetual clank and moan of pipes, letting out the odd muffled scream.

and upon waking after a night of drinking, the main character, Tom Keely, takes stock of himself…

In the bathroom, before a scalding block of sunlight, he tilted at the mirror to see how far the eyes had retreated from the battlefield of his face. Above the wildman beard be was all gullies and flaky shale. His wine-blackened teeth the ruins of a scorched-earth retreat.

The toughest thing about this book is it’s never really clear what exactly is going on with Tom Keely. He was once a well-known climate activist (I think), but his career fell apart, he wife had an affair and got pregnant and left him – even after he begged her to stay and offered to keep the baby as his own. He seems to either be a drug addict, alcoholic, or have some kind of mental/physical illness. It’s not clear and it could be a combination of them all. But after 423 pages, I was still scratching my head wondering what had really happened in this book.

Anyway, I think it was sufficiently disturbing that it created bad dreams for me. It stirred up stuff from my past and present – things that are not resolved and may never be resolved and which normally I can keep at bay.

Something different, next time, please.

Isolation Journal (Day 71)

I have been struggling with looking at how many days I have been in isolation and finding no inspiration in the daily prompts.

At the end of April, I watched The One World: Together at Home show on BBC (apologies to those who are not in the UK as I believe this can only be viewed here) and it made me feel a bit better. So many NHS workers have left their children with family to go into hotels so they can go to work every day. Being at home seems such a tiny sacrifice comparatively speaking. I can’t feel sorry for myself at all. But I do miss my family.

I really miss my family. The lockdown has brought this feeling to the fore. Normally, I would have already seen my Mom twice and my eldest daughter once in these last 70 days. We would already have plans to see each other again.

I am even missing my youngest daughter, who is in one of her moods and hasn’t spoken to me for 15 months. (After a time, the pain of rejection softens and it doesn’t hurt so much this second time around.)

How does one resolve a family that lives on three continents? Can we all just pick up and move to one common country and try to begin living as we feel we should? Wouldn’t there be other challenges?

Such a large part of my existence revolves around nature. It is one of my ways to cope with living. I am so grateful that so many of my days are filled with wonderful walks. It amazes me that we live in an enormous, modern city, and there are so many beautiful places to walk that are filled with nature. We can escape the concrete for some time.

Several weeks ago, the prompt was to write about a common human event using concrete language that brings the experience to life: I’ve written a poem…

 

Envie de Partir

 

Leaving – urgent

The sun cannot wait

…Imagine my canoe, glistening

Almost – jump

the water fowl would prefer I didn’t

 

Birdsong – exquisite

Wretched dragging heart

…Green sky, heaving

Temptation – run

every country locked-down so I can’t

 

Canals – bustling

Solitary planes

…Erasing my quiet

screaming – fly

the runway isn’t made for human legs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 3 – France Home [re-]Construction

So another week passed and not much progress has been made sur notre petite maison. Too afraid to get my hopes up, for good reason. It seems our contractor has no concept of deadlines and payment doesn’t motivate him in the least.

Wood flooring for the kitchen stacked in the bathroom because?

I did have a wonderful lunch by myself in Peillon at Restaurant Les Plaisirs.

Be forewarned, amazing food photos to follow:

The week was crazy busy with Chuck returning from the US on Tuesday and me traveling to London for a work event on Wednesday and then back to France on Friday.

Bye-Bye Nice and Cote d’Azur…

Hello London…

It was nice to be home and in my own bed but it was also a bit frantic. Offsites are never quite what you hope they will be. I did make a special trip to Confiserie Florian in Tourettes-sur-Loup to pick ip some yummy treats, which people did seem to enjoy.

Not much walking due to travel but Saturday we managed a 10ish mile stroll to Valbonne.

And now for something completely random but also funny: my daughter recently told me about and sent me a link to this show called Hot Ones, where they try out progressively hotter and hotter barbecue wings and in this specific episode it’s with Gordon Ramsey. His language is quite crass but it’s worth watching.