Janthon Day 14: Walk 4.9km, Time 1hr, Weather endlessly grey
Another grey day and I am getting very tired of the winter. The extra cold December kept us huddled inside for warmth, whilst January, although mild enough to allow us out to Janathon, has been very dull and wet.
Everything has either died or been cut back and all looks raw and bleak. Today's photo in some small way represents this. It is a walled garden in our local park. In spring and summer it is alive with colour from bedding plants but now everything has been removed and the beds flattened. It looks rather sad as if any attempt to build a garden which can give pleasure all year round has been abandoned.
But I don't want to leave the impression that Day 14 is miserable - that is not the case. I actually woke up feeling quite amused because I had had a Janathon dream.
In it I extended my range of activity and went rock climbing, something I have never done before. I stood at the foot of a cliff and thought it impossible but an experienced climber went ahead and I just followed. Wahoo Janathon climbing hero!
The origin of the dream was probably a television programme. Last night I watched 'Men of Rock' about James Hutton, the founding father of geology, who in the 18th Century had the instinct to know that the earth was unfathomably old and that rocks were created by a process of ceaseless, slow change. He found his evidence in the Highlands, which has some of the oldest rocks on the planet and of course the television camera dwelt on the grandeur of the scenery. I'm sure it inspired me to go rock climbing in my sleep.
Coincidently it connected with one of my favourite books of 2010 - 'At the Loch of the Green Corrie' by Andrew Greig. It is part memoir, part celebration of the poet Norman MacCaig, part an account of a expedition to fish the loch in his memory, and part celebration of the landscape. It devoted some time to James Hutton and the concept of 'Deep Time' and one of its chapters starts:
" While we wait for the Dorward brothers to finish their ablutions and I sit gazing at Quinag across the way, it is time to get up to speed with some geology."
There is a quiet magic in that.
The book contains a few of MacCaig's poems and especially for anybody whose training schedule involves hill work I thought I would quote the first verse of 'Descent from the Green Corrie'
The climb's all right, it's the descent that kills you.
Knees become fists that don't know how to
clench
And thighs are strings in parallel.
Gravity's still your enemy - it drills you
With your own backbone - its love is all to
wrench
You down on screes or boggy asphodel
4 comments:
Go rock climber! Those kind of dreams are great, like flying dreams, meant to be very positive.
My all time favourite dream was one where I woke up laughing. I felt happy for the rest of the day.
Does the rock climbing count towards your Janathon, lol. Maybe you should try it. It's great fun at an indoor centre as you don't have to battle the weather.
Rock climbing might be too difficult for me. I'd rather go jogging or running for exercise.
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