2011 Streak 257 (Saturday Sept 17th): Small pleasures

2011 Streak 257 (Saturday Sept 17^th): Walk 3 miles, Time 1hr, Weather - There were clouds

I think I should now celebrate small pleasures. Not the big stuff that lifts you up and gives you a sense of your identity, not the set pieces you plan for, nor even the things you feel you can't live without. No I want to celebrate the little things that make you feel just that slightly better. Mostly they are simple, often they can be semi-routines (not totally a routine though because once something becomes a habit you lose the sense of attention).

One of mine is to walk to a coffee shop and read the Saturday Guardian in a slow, relaxed way. Always I will find something to catch my attention away from the mainstream news, whether it be a personal story or an essay. I don't read the whole paper, that would take too much time and anyway I like to hold back the review section for the following day, but just enough to make the time seem well spent.

Today for example I was  interested in an article by Ian Jack about the differing fates of Tony Hayward, who was the CEO of BP at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and J Bruce Ismay, who was the Chairman and managing director of the White Star Line when the Titanic sunk. Tony Hayward has now moved on (as jargon would have it) to another venture which has raised £1.35bn by floating on the stock market. However the shame of the Titanic and the opprobrium of public meant that Ismay never quite got his life back again. As Ian jack said "This is what shame and feelings of personal responsibility did, once upon a time." but now "Public disgrace – the fact of it, whether justified or not – no longer presents an obstacle to powerful careers."

An interesting comparison of changing mores and what I look for in my Saturday read - a broader perspective on what is happening, something more considered than the endless chatter of rolling news.

P.S. Summer might have been rubbish by any normal summery criterium but the slight consolation has been some spectacular cloud formations. This dark sunset in today's picture is an example among many.

2011 Streak Day 256 (Friday Sept 16th): Seasons

2011 Streak Day 256 (Friday Sept 16^th): Walk 4 miles, Time 1hr 30min, Weather - bright, cloudy, bright, cloudy

Another Cambridge day with a walk back to the Park&Ride. If I had been feeling more chipper I would have done it both ways but I still feel rough and back was enough.

This has been a very strange week. I have been able to keep going up to a point  but there have been no energy reserves. I have done a little and then felt washed out. 

Nevertheless it is always good to come to Cambridge. It is a nice time as the tourists are thinning-out but the students have not yet come back. Not that the place is empty - the city is never empty as there are always visitors, even on bleak winter days (and some winter days can be very bleak). But Cambridge has its seasons with people as well as trees and plants.

Sitting, overlooking the river, I enjoy the signs of autumn. As I have said more than a few times the whole point of this years project is to observe the changing of the seasons.

2011 Streak Day 255 ( Thursday Sept 15th): Lungs of the city

2011 Streak Day 255 ( Thursday Sept 15^th): Walk 3 miles, Time 1hr 5min, Weather - clear but a little cool, like autumn.

I haven't done this enough - take the car a few miles up the road to Ashridge. I have spent  many hours, over many years, mountain biking through the trails and have a deep affection for the place. It is not that I do not come here, it is that I haven't come enough.

Always I am surprised how people melt away. There are cars in the car park but a few hundred yards along the paths you feel as if you are alone in the middle of nature unchanged over the centuries. it is an illusion of course. The woods are carefully managed and the paths are well trod. Nevertheless you can always find somewhere peaceful and breath deeply. Yes it is somewhere to breath.

You can appreciate why the green belt around Greater London  (of which this area is part) are described as the lungs of the city. But that analogy bothers me a little. They are not the lungs, they are places of refuge, places you can go to escape, places where you can find peace and wider vistas. Here I am not part of any city, I am in an easily accessible area of natural beauty. 

The city lungs are the parks like Hyde Park - open areas that are part of the city fabric. In fact the phrase "Lungs of London" (which has since been generalised to lungs of the city and been applied to green spaces everywhere) was first coined by William Pitt the Elder in the 18^th Century when London was expanding rapidly and losing many of its villages and commons. However the concept became more urgent at the beginning of the 19^th Century when even areas like Hyde Park were threatened. The phrase has proved useful for campaigners from that time on.

It is sometime salutary to remember that all our green spaces have not been preserved by accident. They are the result of idealists, activists,and benefactors winning political arguments so the importance of green, open areas is enshrined in the planning system; both the parks that are the lungs and the surrounding areas which are the refuge.

2011 Streak Day 254 (Wednesday Sept 14th): Lineman

2011 Streak Day 254 (Wednesday Sept 14^th):Walk - 1 mile, Time 20min, Weather - changeable

Me last picture showed my grandson, this picture reminds me of my grandfather. He was a telephone engineer and inspected the lines.

These lines amused me though because they show the persistence of nature and the way plants can grow up anything.

Because of my grandfather I have always had a soft spot for the song Wichita Lineman, even though that was about people maintaining power cables rather than telephone lines. Recently Radio 4 made a programme about that song in its Soul Music series, which is still available. It is odd when talking to both my wife and daughter about this they thought the song was about railway lines and have always been puzzled by the lyrics.

Other than that there is not much to report. I only managed the minimum distance. I am glad I decided Folkestone was off - I am worse rather than better.

2011 Streak Day 253 (Sept 13th): A slight indulgence

2011 Streak Day 253 (Sept 13th): A slight indulgence
Walk - 1 mile, Time 23min, Weather - changeable, some rain interspersed with blue skies and sun

This blog is concerned with running and what I notice when out and about. It is not a diary and is only indirectly personal and there are no pictures of me or my family.

But I want to make an exception with a moment of self-indulgence. My elder daughter and her new child  had been staying with us for the past 4 days and it seemed appropriate to mark this with a picture.

There certainly wasn't much scope for an outdoor alternative as the exertions of the last two days  left me completely drained and only able to do the minimum.

2011 Streak Day 252 (Monday Sept 12th): Moving

2011 Streak Day 252 (Monday Sept 12^th): Walk - 2 miles, Time - 40min, Weather extremely windy ( the tail end of Hurricane  Katia)

The photograph is a phoney. It was taken today (Sept 29^th) because I realised I did not have a picture to represent my main activity for Day 252 - driving to Manchester and back, mostly on the motorway.

However what it does show is the contrast between the wonderfully hot weather we are having in autumn compared to the miserably dull days in what was meant to be summer. I have been amazed at going through all the photos I took on those days to see how many showed grey skies.

Anyway September 12^th was notable for being the day when we caught the tail end of Hurricane Katia. I thought the drive was going to be in driving rain, with high sided lorries swaying all over the road. In the event it was not too bad - the sky was mostly clear and although it was very windy the lorries were coping. Unlike the Tour of Britain, which called-off the day's stage.

My walking was accounted for by toing and froing, with stuff, to move my daughter into her new flat and wandering the streets of West Didsbury on finding that Greens was not open for monday lunch.

2011 Streak Day 251 (Sun Sept 11th): Make or break

2011 Streak Day 251 (Sun Sept 11^th): Run 4.25 miles Time 40min Weather grey but with patches of blue sky and scudding clouds 

This was make or break Sunday. 

The plan has been to run the Folkestone Half Marathon on 25^th Sept - two weeks away, but with feeling unwell and not having run for two weeks that was looking problematic. If I was recovered enough to survive a decent length run, then residual fitness from the summer should be OK and I would be able to tailor a programme to be able to get round. The question was if?

The first part of the run seemed fine. I hit a steady rhythm and kept going but very quickly I realised there was no power in the legs - no push at all.  The further I went the weaker I felt. I managed to keep going for 4 miles because the route was flat (by the canal) and I adopted a technique of just lifting my legs up, the equivalent of twiddling on a bike. Even so I had to stop a couple of times.

Not too good but not completely without hope. When I finished I was not 100% sure Folkestone was a lost cause but when I got home I knew it was. I completely flaked-out and spent the rest of the day lolling around feeling rubbish. A flat, easy 4 miles had done for me. There was no chance I would be able to do 13 a few days later.

Sadness washed over me because I had really wanted to do the race and meet-up with some wonderful bloggers who, so far, I have only ever talked to on-line. Bah!

But it is my constant refrain about running: it forces you to be honest about your abilities as you can only do what you can do. I knew I couldn't do a half marathon.

P.S. For the first time there is continuity in pictures. The photo in the last post was of a canal bridge. This is looking back towards where I was when I took that photo.

2011 Streak Day 259 (Saturday Sept 10th): Tradition

2011 Streak Day 259 (Saturday Sept 10^th):Walk 2.5 miles, Time 1hr, Weather - clouds come, clouds go

Another day to combine grocery shopping with a walk along the canal. As Sainsbury's is next to the canal, on the site of the old John Dickinson paper mill, it is the obvious thing to do.

This bridge, with its useless secondary arch is one I have always liked. It puzzles me slightly because I do not think the canal too wide to be spanned by a single arch. I will obviously have to do further research on the span of brick arches and their limits.

However as it is this bridge has a picturesque lop-sided charm. A couple of weeks ago I passed a lady painting a watercolour of it and stopped for a chat about what she was doing and the view.

Yesterday I mentioned the comforting Englishness of the bowling green. I ought to add to that the sight of a watercolourist in the open air, painting a landscape.

2011 Streak Day 249 (Friday Sept 9th): Bowls

2011 Streak Day 249 (Friday Sept 9^th): Walk 1 mile, Time 20min, Weather - fed-up of saying overcast lets concentrate on the positive and say it was warm

Not much time for a walk today as I had to go to Winchester so once again the minimum has been done.

But this gives me a chance to take a picture of the bowling green and talk about the enormous care goes into their maintenance and in many cases like here it is done by council. But obviously the council is an arm of government and statist and not part of the Big Society so the Secretary of State for local government, Eric Pickles, uses bowling as an example where local people can band together and take over some local land.  This letter in Guardian shows it is not quite as simple as that.

I am no bowler but I value the greens as part of the fabric of English life and somehow I feel reassured by their presence.

2011 Streak Day 248 (Thursday Sept 8th): Walking and thinking

2011 Streak Day 248 (Thursday Sept 8^th)

Walk - 3 miles , Time 1hr 10min, Weather - grey

When you look at this tree you can see how easy it is to imagine monsters and scary creatures. This looks like a multi-eyed sea creature, which has crawled up out of the canal.

When walking or running thoughts float in and out. You see something out of the corner of the eye, make some connection and it is then gone - replaced  another idle thought. I would not have remembered this tree if I hadn't taken a photograph. The act of taking a photo is different - you have to stop, make decisions, focus your attention. You are deliberately memorialising.  

Sometimes though I can't be bothered to stop. I am content in the stream of consciousness. Happy in the fleeting moments.

The thought patterns of running and walking are different though. Running thoughts are not sustained. The needs of the body are far too intrusive and the aching: of the legs, or the shoulders, or the lungs constantly intrude. The clip clop rhythm imposes a pattern at odds with the contemplative plod of a walk. Also walking can be automatic like breathing and it is possible to sustain an argument, a thread, work something out.

Without having any real statistics to hand I am sure the number of writers and artists who use walking as an aid to thinking is large. Perhaps I should start to compile a list.

Of the top of my head I would start with  Charles Dickens who was famous for walking prodigious distances each day. But there is also Eric Satie for whom walking was an important part of his daily routine (there was a Radio 3 programme on 27^th August about Satie walking, which is unfortunately no longer available on the iplayer).

However this passage from a moribund blog Daily Routines, tells you all you need to know.

"On most mornings after he moved to Arcueil, Satie would return to Paris on foot, a distance of about ten kilometres, stopping frequently at his favourite cafés on route. Accoring to Templier, "he walked slowly, taking small steps, his umbrella held tight under his arm. When talking he would stop, bend one knee a little, adjust his pince-nez and place his fist on his lap. The he would take off once more with small deliberate steps."

When he eventually reached Paris he visited friends, or arranged to meet them in other cafés by sending pneumatiques. Often the walking from place to place continued, focussing on Montmarte before the war, and subsequently on Montparnasse. From here, Satie would catch the last train back to Arcueil at about 1.00am, or, if he was still engaged in serious drinking, he would miss the train and begin the long walk home during the early hours of the morning. Then the daily round would begin again.

Roger Shattuck, in conversations with John Cage in 1982, put forward the interesting theory that "the source of Satie's sense of musical beat--the possibility of variation within repetition, the effect of boredom on the organism--may be this endless walking back and forth across the same landscape day after day . . . the total observation of a very limited and narrow environment." During his walks, Satie was also observed stopping to jot down ideas by the light of the street lamps he passed.

Robert Orledge, Satie Remembered. French translations by Roger Nichols. (Thanks to Tom Cunliffe.)"

(The highlight is mine)

2011 Streak Day 247 (Wednesday Sept 7th): Grey

2011 Streak Day 247 (Wednesday Sept 7^th): Walk - 2 miles, Time - 45min, Weather - grey and overcast

The words that have dominated my weather reports have been grey and overcast.  Look at the photograph and you can see that once again those words cannot be avoided. In fact the sky is the only real subject of the photo as otherwise it is an unremarkable view - just the park at the bottom of my road.

This is the place I regularly walk at the moment - a pleasant place to be that is quite close. Even if my sub-par health wasn't limiting the range of my trips at the moment I would not be constantly exploring new places.

 When I run I have a few core routes which I vary slightly by throwing in different loops or extensions, with cycling it is the same. When I feel better I think I will make a bigger effort to explore other places.

2011 Streak Day 246 (Tuesday Sept 6th): Autumn leaf

2011 Streak Day 246 (Tuesday Sept 6^th): Walk - 1 mile, Time - 25min, Weather - variable

After yesterday's exertions I felt tired and so there was only minimum exercise. The Streak is more or less been kept going in name only.

On my way back I saw this leaf which had fallen onto the pavement and immediately thought of autumn and how the seasons have now turned. No great insights just a fleeting "Oh autumn already".

2011 Streak Day 245 (Monday Sept 5th): Looking at buildings

2011 Streak Day 245 (Monday Sept 5^th): Walk - 4 miles, Time - 2hrs, Weather - blue sky and sun (could be confused with summer)

A day in London.

The photo was taken in Whitcomb Street.  China Town looked very festive with yellow and red lanterns strung across the streets. The paper globes absorbed the light and glowed whilst the tinsel shimmered, reflecting the sun. Below people strolled, stood talking in groups, or walked purposefully. It was (however briefly) summer in the city.

The effect of weather on behaviour is fascinating. Yesterday, when it was raining, people were defensive, hunched into themselves but today, in the sun, they open out and the atmosphere is more relaxed.

I like warm (but not too hot) days in London. Not taking public transport allows you to look more closely at the surroundings: the people, the buildings. The great trick when looking at buildings is to look up. At eye level a streetscape is dominated by shop fronts and their signs and as the majority of these are chain stores they will look the same wherever. However above first floor level the buildings show their history and are particular to their location

But looking gives only a general impression. it never gives the full story behind why buildings were built the way they were at that particular time. The exterior never tells everything and I sometimes think we spend too much time judging various stylistic ticks and less on how buildings actually function.

A good example is the National Gallery Extension. The story behind it is fascinating in that it had been the site of a department store, which had been destroyed in the Blitz. For over 30 years the site had been vacant and there had been a desire to expand the Gallery but money was the problem (it is amazing how mean spirited our attitude to public building has been during most of the post war period). The 80s were not a propitious time as they were the time of Thatcher, the introduction of museum charges and a suspicion of public provision. Thus the initial plan was for a mixed development with office and gallery space, the former paying for the latter.  There was a  public competition won by Ahrends  but their modern design that incurred the wrath of the Prince of Wales. His speech where he compared it to a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of  a much loved and elegant friend" sparked a huge cotroversy and the design was withdrawn

Although this was unfair to Ahrends, who had done a good job with a compromised brief, there was a a happy consequence: members of the Sainsbury family donated enough money to allow the site to be developed for the National Gallery alone (as should have been the plan all along).

The new building was designed by Robert Venturi, an extremely influential theoretician and architect, often associated with Post-Modernism. The exterior is an understated pastiche, designed to miimc the main National Gallery building. Inside there is a simplified, stylised classicism to the rooms but the colouring is grey - everywhere there is grey.

At the time I can remember most people being snooty about the the building. The modernists didn't like it because they thought it backward looking and a compromise, whilst the nostalgic romantics were not that impressed either.

My own view at the time, and still is, that it was very clever. The exterior gives minimum offence and is designed to blend-in and avoid more controversy, whilst the interior offers an excellent environment for viewing the pictures (which is after all a gallery's job). The use of grey is an example of this. If it was used in this way in a normal multi-use building it would be oppressive but here it allows the colours of the Renascence painting to come alive and seem vivid (which again is the purpose of the space).

Looking at the building now and knowing the background story means that the initial visual impression is supplemented by a wider understanding.  However most of the time when I walk around London I am more aware of what I don't know than what I do. Most of the time  I fall back on fleeting visual impressions.

2011 Streak Day 244 (Sunday Sept 4th): Wet

2011 Streak Day 244 (Sunday Sept 4^th): Walk - 3 miles, Time 1hr, Weather - Very wet

My walk took me to town today. When I started it was merely grey overhead but when I arrived the clouds opened up. This picture is from the early stages. Afterwards it got heavier and heavier until the raindrops were bouncing back off the paving stones.

I was delayed getting back - that is all i have to say.

2011 Streak 243 (Saturday Sept 3rd): Beginnings

2011 Streak 243 (Saturday Sept 3^rd):Walk 2 miles, Time - 45min,  Weather - strange split sky banks of gunmetal grey cloud and blue sky

Short slow walk around Old Town and park. This is a very difficult time. Feeling weak but trying to carry on is hard work as I arrive home exhausted. At the moment the days are a mixture of: rest, a little activity, rest. All is hazy.

However being in the park ion a Saturday is a good diversion. Watching other people circulating, and enjoying themselves, lifts ones own spirits. When you feel ill it is very easy to direct all your attention inwards but there is stimulation in the world around  and this can make you feel better.

Walking along the footpath I glimpsed a wedding party assembling for photographs outside St Mary's church. Weddings always represent hope and the beginning of something. I like beginnings. 

I could do with one rich now.  I need to get back into training and start making plans again but at the moment that seems a strange and distant idea.

2011 Streak Day 242 (Friday Sept 2nd): Looking towards the future

2011 Streak Day 242 (Friday Sept 2^nd): Walk 2 miles, Time 40min, Weather sunny and bright

I took the car to Berkhamsted and walked along the canal. I rather like it here because it feels much more a part of the town, with more communal space than at Hemel. There is more parkland and greater variety of buildings along the canal side (including 3 pubs). in the summer holidays it is the place people go

This picture is of a small area of sustainable plant in the park, next to the children’s play area. I like the idea of councils creating such plantings, especially as it runs counter to the local government tradition of formal, geometric displays of bedding plants. The flowers are usually colourful and pretty but the arrangement is very rigid.

I also like it that it is near the play area for young children. If sustainability is about anything then it about them and their future children. A neat little bit of symbolism.

2011 Streak Day 241 (Thursday Set 1st): It is always the process that matters

2011 Streak Day 241 (Thursday Set 1^st): Walk - 1 mile, Time 20min, Weather - some sun, mostly muggy

Minimal walk today. Very easy because my energies had to be saved for the main exertion, which was moving my daughter & possessions out her room in college. Today was the last day of her masters and it is now all over. The dissertation has been handed in, the presentation given and a website delivered. A year of intensely hard work has finished.

I wonder whether there will now be a let-down as can happen, on a more minor scale, with running. Preparing for a marathon, if done properly, consumes large amounts of time and most spare mental capacity. Once it is over though, after the initial sense of achievement, there is an emptiness. What do you now do?

You float for a bit but then the answer is simple: you start again because running is something you just carry on doing. It is what you do if running is part of your self definition.

The process, the doing, is always the most important thing

2011 Streak Day 242 (Wednesday Aug 31st): These things are important

2011 Streak Day 242 (Wednesday Aug 31st): Walk - 2 miles, Time - 45min, Weather - overcast

This is picture of work in progress is a small example of how the planning system can work.

In canal history terms the site is interesting as it had been a working wharf from the earliest days of the Grand Union Canal in 1798 until 2002, when Bridgewater Boats stopped using it in 2002. 

However a vacant plot beside a canal, in an attractive town like Berkhamsted is an obvious opportunity for housing development. A plan was put forward for that would have lost the wharf and its connection with the past. There was however opposition.

In the event the initial proposal was dropped and a new owner got planning permission for a scheme, which scaled back the housing and incorporated a boatyard. As you can see some housing new housing is in keeping with its surroundings .

The story of the battle against the original proposals is here, including a link to the documents presented to the planning committee. A colossal amount of work was required to oppose the initial planning application but it showed that sometimes things can be done to preserve the character and tradition of a place.

This is important to know because at the moment there are threats to our planning system, making it far easier for developers to get the go-ahead. 

The proposals have incurred the ire of, amongst others, the National Trust (not a body I would have thought a  Conservative politician would want to cross) and it is well worth reading the wonderfully spleenic polemic by their chairman Simon Jenkins.

These things are important because we are often unaware of all the forces that shape our environment and the character of the places we live. We need systems to both preserve and improve what we have. We cannot leave it all to chance and market forces.

With all the time I spend running or walking by the canal I am acutely aware not only of how fortunate I am to have it nearby but also of what a wonderful amenity it is. Yet knowing something of the history of canals and how in middle of the 20^th Century they were scruffy neglected areas in the backend of towns makes me aware that their present state cannot be taken for granted

2011 Streak Day 241 (Tuesday Aug 30th): Water Gardens

2011 Streak Day 241 (Tuesday Aug 30^th): Walk - 3 miles, Time 1hr 10min, Weather - greyish once more

When I started this 2011 project one of the objectives was to talk about exercise and training, as normal, another was to notice things I found visually interesting and take photographs, but the third strand was pay attention to my home region, especially Hemel Hempstead where I live.

What particularly interests me is the differences between the ideals and hopes invested in the New Town project immediately post-war and the way they are now. I am tremendously attracted to the early idealism but am equally aware that some things have not turned out as planned.

Today’s photo is a good example and it is a disgrace.

You would not guess from the overgrown planting, eroded banks, grass destroyed by too many canada geese, and eroding concrete, that this is a listed in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Particular Historic Interested (in other words it is Grade II listed). 

It was designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe (a eminent landscape architect of the Twentieth Century who was also responsible for the gardens of the JFK Memorial at Runnymead) and planted by his wife Susan, both of whom thought it one of their most successful projects. Interestingly Jellicoe was interested in the way the unconscious influenced all design and in this project admitted being influenced by Paul Klee.

Today you would be hard put to identify the artistic ideals. What should be a pleasant civic space has been neglected over the years and is now a just a scruffy area with water (kids can still feed the ducks so that is OK).

It is an example of how anything can degrade without care and attention. Everything has to be maintained or it starts to fall apart. Changes may be gradual at first, barely noticeable, but eventually they reach a point where you  realise things have become so bad major reconstruction is needed.

It looks like we are now at that point. The Garden History Society had a study day in Hemel on the Water Gardens, a Friends Group is being formed to work with the council to prepare a bid for lottery funding and the council itself is talking of improving the area. But “actively pursued when the cash is available” probably means we should not expect immediate action.

2011 Streak Day 240 (Monday Aug 29th): Images and reality

2011 Streak Day 240 (Monday Aug 29^th): Walk - 2 miles, Time - 45min, Weather - still grey

Car to the canal and then a gentle stroll along the route of many runs.

I am watching the progress of the housing development on the site of the old paper mill. At the moment they only seem to be building in the corner furthest away from the canal. Probably there are phases and they will get round to canal side when the initial development has been sold. This means that if you buy one of the houses now you will be living on a building site for a long time.

So how do they sell it, what do they offer to tempt you? With nothing less than peace, open countryside and idyllic living. Wow.

I actually like the pictures they put on the walls (they are not a lie - that opening into that parkland is only a half a mile up the hill) but what I want to know is what the houses will look like. Odd to concentrate on the surroundings and not the buildings but I suppose they are really selling a dream.