Janathon Day 31: In summary

Janathon Day 31: Walk - 17.47km, Time - 3hrs, Weather - wonderfully bright

Today is the last day of January and so the objective has been achieved: every day of the month I have walked or cycled and taken a picture. No backsliding and no cheating by posting an existing photos (which would have been very bad because the whole purpose was to post a photo of something found on the day). 

For today I thought I needed a swan. If you spend as much time by the canal as I do, you see many swans and so they should included in the records. I was very lucky because there was a beautifully white swans gliding around the marina, where the water looked very black. It was a lovely contrast. I am quite happy with this as my final image for Janathon.

As for exercise, the totals were:

Time - 50.5 hrs, or approximately 1hr 38min per day on average

Distance - 315.8 miles or 10.19 miles a day on average

Cycling - 11 days, 200.7 miles, average 18.25 miles

Walking - 20 days, 115.1 miles, average 5.75

However the totals are mostly irrelevant because they only show I put in a decent shift. They give no indication of the things I learnt along the way, which were:

1. The need to take at least one useable photo a day not only made me look at things more closely, it also made the trips more enjoyable. 
2. I was really surprised at how many images I found. Many times I went out with the idea of  taking a particular picture but junked it for something else that had been randomly spotted along the way. 
3. No matter how well you think you know an area there is always something new to see.
4. Getting out each day in January is not only possible, it is desirable. It helped my mood no end and changed a month I usually endure into one I positively enjoyed.
5. I don't have to run. As long as I can et about somehow there is plenty of satisfaction. But...
6. It is all very well being patient with my knee but I still want to get back running as soon as possible - when I passed runners I often felt a small pang of envy.  
7. Walking has one advantage over running in that you can take the bus back and that is brilliant as it extends your range.
8. The sense of satisfaction is increased enormously if you feel you have fought the elements and won. Going out when it is cold or wet brings perverse rewards.
9. There are an awful lot of dedicated and determined and talented people.
10. Everybody who took part in Janathon should be congratulated.

Finally the person most deserving of congratulation is Jogblog, who made it all happen. Without her there would have been nothing; especially for me who would not have taken part if she had not suggested I could walk instead of run.

Janathon Day 30: 100 + 200

Janathon Day 30: Cycle - 15.6 miles, Time -  1hr 09min, Weather - Initially the same as yesterday but halfway the clouds lifted and there was some blue sky. Still cold though.

If this was June we would all be done and celebrating by now. We would have completed 30 days and be wondering about how to keep up the momentum. But no! January is not only a lot colder it lasts longer - an extra day is needed.

Nevertheless I have reached my targets: I have walked 100 miles and cycled for 200. So a mild celebration is in order after all. Mind you I did not know it was a target until 3 days ago when I realised I had cycled 138 miles and there were enough days to reach 200 quite comfortably. 

When I started I had no concerns about distance as the only plan was to get out each day and take a photo. But it is amazing how recording figures changes your outlook and you start to set yourself other objectives. It is another small example of how the act of measuring changes what is measured.

As this is my last ride of Janathon I thought I ought to retrace one of the routes to take a photo of the real alpacas (rather than a photo of an alpaca poster). So here it is: a bucolic scene of alpacas gently grazing in a field. It all worked out rather well because the day had started out the normal overcast grey but when I reached the alpacas the cloud had lifted and for a few moments the sun broke through. Photographs are so much better when there is light and shade.

All in all a good morning.

Janathon Day 29: I don't want to think about cold feet

Janathon Day 29: Cycle - 24.6  miles, Time - 1hr 52min, Weather - Oh so very cold (and grey of course).

I think the temperature today has hovered between 0 and 1. When it is cold my big problems are feet and ears; other than those extremities I can cover-up pretty well.

Although I wear two pairs of socks, in the end they don't work and my feet gradually get numb. The colder they get, the more I think about them and this can translate into questions about how much I am enjoying myself. Questions I need to protect myself against. So I have to resort to mental tricks - setting little targets,  focussing on something else, or best of all concentrating on maintaining a rhythm. 

It works but in some way I am hunkering into myself and not feeling expansive, not looking round, not savouring the surroundings.

Many times on this blog I talked about joy I find in looking around, trying to see things afresh, picking up details that previously I had not noticed. Today there was little of that as my eyes were mostly fixed on the tarmac in front of me.

However I was thinking about the idea of looking because of an article by Oliver Burkeman in today's Guardian. Apparently the latest trend for business gurus is to advocate looking at things as if for the first time, something they call 'vuja dé'. Really I can hardly bring myself to type those two words, they fill me with so much revulsion. I hate it when these shamans get hold of a single idea from common practice and package it as a commodity by use of a name.

My instinctive reaction is rejection. I do not want to believe anything said by someone who can use the term vuja dé, with a straight face. But I cannot do that - the whole idea is to precious to me. It is one of the reasons I run, walk cycle: I want to look around and see my surroundings. I want to see something surprising, not something I expect to see.

That is why the focus of my Janathon is not so much the exercise as taking a photo each day. When I set out I really do not know what I will find.

Today's photo is the latest in a series of strange warning signs. As you can see the area is fenced off and defended by barbed wire. People are not meant to get in. If they do there are other dangers, like the twisted shards of metal and contaminated land (it is the site of the Buncefield explosion 5 years ago), so why concentrate on a small, deep reservoir? Not only that the sign is only visible no because all the vegetation has died back, for most of the year it will be covered-up. Is there any purpose to a sign that cannot be seen?

There is no end to the questions you can ask yourself when you are out for a ride. And for a time they will all keep you from thinking about your cold feet.

Janathon Day 28: Geese on a pond

Janathon Day 28: Cycle - 23.4 miles, Time - 1hr 53min, Weather - grey, occasional glimpses of sun, bitingly cold wind.

The beginning of today's ride was very, very hard. The biting wind was from the north east and that was the direction I was going. There was no shelter and my face was being shredded. A good excuse to bail out was needed - but there was none.

An intelligent person would make some route adjustments; but that is easier said than done when you are on a country lane with no immediate turn offs. All you can do is grit your teeth and say to yourself 15-20 minutes and I will be warmed up. Lo and behold it happened but by that time I had also changed direction so everything had become cosier. 

Woodland is always a good plan on windy days as they can feel almost calm even when it is raging elsewhere. When I was cycling through the sheltered lanes I saw a woman walking her dog (a stylish german shepherd with a long fluffy coat), although she was dressed against the cold, everything was very precise and, beneath the pink hat, her face was carefully made up. My first thought was to wonder whether make-up protected your face from the wind; my second was to think about the sort of area I was in - an area where you have to look right even when walking your dog. 

Some times I feel like a complete outsider.

Previously though I had met another woman walking her dog but this could not have been more different. I had just finished taking today's photo of geese on a farm pond when the owner returned from walking her collie. She looked, what she undoubtably was, a capable practical person.

We fell into conversation about the geese and how she they guarded her property far more effectively than dogs. I mentioned that it was rather wonderful to have a farm with a pond because it reminded me of all my childhood picture books, and that is very reassuring.

But this is not the cosy world of those books. The farm entrance was guarded by an electronic gate; there was cctv, never mind the geese. Apparently such isolated buildings are targets for thieves who take tools, machines and fuel oil. The man in the nearby cottage had just lost all his gardening tools.

The countryside I cycle through might look pretty, with many affluent houses (not to mention elegant people walking their pedigree dogs) but there is obviously a dark side. 

janathon Day 27: A proverb about moss

Janathon Day 27: Walk - 10.65km, Time - 2hr 5min, Weather - grey and cold

So today we use a photograph to illustrate a proverb: 

'A rolling stone gathers no moss' has always puzzled me because I have always taken it to mean that someone who is rootless, feckless, and will not settle down will not accumulate wealth. In other words if you drift from thing to thing and never focus on anything in particular, you will end up with nothing. 

It makes perfect sense but why would you want moss?

I have since found out that other people understand the proverb differently. To them moss signifies stagnation and to avoid crusting over you have to keep moving, keep active, be creative, and retain your life force.

That also makes sense but why a stone? And anyway aren't rolling stones dangerous, usually caused by landslips and earthquakes?

Proverbs can be tricky. 

Perhaps todays photo can help. It is a detail from a funny little boat moored between Hemel and Berkhamsted, which I passed on my walk. As you can see it is not lovingly maintained. It looks almost abandoned and the rope has obviously been untouched for so long it is completely overgrown with moss. Not nice. The moss is the result of neglect. 

 "A well loved boat gathers no moss"  Is my new proverb - more accurate but it does not roll off the tongue. I don't think it will catch on.

On the Janathon front today is a landmark as I have now walked for more than 100 miles. So I can take some mild satisfaction, put the kettle on and have a nice cup of tea.

Janathon Day 26: I am told we do this for pleasure

Janathon Day 26: Cycle - 15.6 miles, Time - 1hr 10min, Weather - mizzley but getting colder

Boy does it look bleak. This is what a lunchtime run looks like around the back of the industrial estate (actually it is next to the Buncefield depot). It requires a certain amount of resolution to get out, so fair play to these three. Also fair play to me cycling along trying to define the concept of pleasure (in other words asking myself why I am doing this).

As a colder wind comes from the north and the mizzley rain wraps everything in damp felt,  it is very difficult to feel uplifted. Yet we go out. 

As part of the negotiations we have with ourself, before we leave, we say it will only be a quick blast, soon done, then a box will be ticked, a schedule fulfilled, and importantly we won't have another reason to think we have let ourself down. Reluctantly the sluggardly side of us agrees and we start. At first the sluggard feels vindicated - it feels uncomfortable and thoughts stray to questions about the shortest allowable distance.  But as we settle-in, for some strange reason, everything changes - it starts to feel good. 

How did that happen? Why is this? Surely it should feel better in the warm? But it doesn't. After about fifteen minutes we start to feel more alive and it is refreshing to feel the weather on our cheeks. 

When we finish the sense of satisfaction is far greater than the effort would otherwise warrant.

Janathon Day 25: Breathing

Janathon Day 25: Walk - 7.25km, Time - 1hr 20min, Weather - mostly overcast

Today"s walk around Berkhamsted could cause me to get grouchy about private education and inequality (after all this picture shows about half of the playing fields of Berkhamsted School) but I don't want to do that. I do not want to be miserable. 

I want to talk about the joy of being outside; walking, looking around, sing to oneself, greeting passing runners, and just feeling that this is really a pleasant part of the world. I want to talk about the freedom of have no fixed route, nowhere specific to go to, the luxury of taking decisions on a whim - knowing there would be no consequence,  the opportunity to stop and watch some chaffinches in a field before noticing a song thrush. I want to talk about these things because they are the reasons for what we are doing.

I want to talk about being in the open and the simple pleasure of breathing.

That is all.

Janathon Day 24: Fly tipping

Janathon Day 24: Cycle - 15 miles, Time 1hr 04min , Weather - overcast (yet again)

On Day 22 I talked about the increasing number of pub closures. I didn't delve too deeply into the reasons behind  the trend but could have mentioned factors such as a changing sense of locality. More of us work outside the area we live in, we commute to work and will often socialise, after work in the bigger town. Also friends might be geographically spread so that any meeting might take place at some neutral spot rather than locally. This means the traditional local has to really fight for custom.

It is something that will be worked out and it is not necessarily a bad thing when a pub closes (some of them were pretty rough). But the trend of how and where we socialise is well worth watching (I think for example that coffee shops take up a lot of the daytime slack as places to meet and chat).

As I said before, cycling is a way of getting out and noticing what is happing in the area. Mostly my reaction "Oh that's interesting" and then I move on. I don't get angry or upset as I am not in any state of continual irritation with the way the world is changing. Change happens - the interesting thing is to try to understand it.

There is however an exception - something that is guaranteed to get under my skin - and that is fly tipping.

My rides take me along many little used country lanes and often round bends, in clearings, or field entrances, slightly off the road, objects are dumped. I have seen fridges, chairs, mattresses - well just about all domestic items. Then, of course there is rubble from a small building work. This example of tyres obviously comes from a small trader unwilling to pay the price of disposal.

Seeing it never fails to sour my mood.

The next thing that has to happen is the Council has to clear it up and, in a time when local government is taking the main frontline hit in budgetary cuts, this is a problem. Not only because we are all paying extra for something we shouldn't but because, if the amount of remedial work increases as times get harder at the same time as council budgets are getting smaller, things will deteriorate. 

I think the way a place looks, the quality of maintenance, is tremendously important  to how we feel about living somewhere. I don't want it to be degraded and jeopardised by thoughtless and selfish action of those who don't give a damn.

Apart from that I had a good ride. My mood was not soured for long - it was a momentary flash of irritation. I came home feeling quite refreshed. My overall mood is completely different to the general tone of this post .

Janathon Day 23: On being a bit more useful

Janathon Day 23: Walk - 7.25km, Time - 1hr 25min, Weather - overcast and grey but a little more mild.

It took me some time to work out what this was all about. Initially I was attracted by the sculptural quality of the twisted silver metal, wrapped like tinsel around the black fence and liked the idea of making the functional look dramatic. I just couldn't see what the function was. But it is actually blindingly obvious and I am sure many of you will, metaphorically, be patting me on the head and say 'there, there, you can't help it if you are a bit slow'. 

All I can say is: that might well be the case but in the end I did realise it is to stop people walking along the ledge. 

Sometimes seeing what's in front of your nose is not straightforward.

Anyway  today's exercise was not really the walk, even though that is my official entry. No today I cut down a tree. 

It was a weeping birch and so not enormously tall  but it nevertheless was a bit of a challenge as I am not the lumberjack type and do not have access to all the proper equipment. So this was a job done with a basic wood saw, cutting at odd angles as I took off the main branches before tackling the trunk.

As I was doing it I thought of my father, who was always doing this kind of thing, either rebuilding parts of the house or reordering the garden. He was an immensely practical man, constantly active but also purposeful. By contrast I spend my time on running, walking and cycling - far less useful. 

So in the light of that thought I class today's major effort as tree surgery.

Janathon Day 22: Boarded-up pub

Janathon Day 22: Cycle - 15.7 miles, Time - 1hr 12min, Weather - fine rain, cold and wind

One of the things I have noticed recently is the number of closed pubs. The traditional local, as a place for socialising and drinking, seems to be under threat and on my cycle rides I always pass one or more pub that is boarded-up. The one in today's picture is in the village of Bedmond, and has now been empty several months. I do not know what will happen to the site. All I know is that I find empty buildings being left to decay both haunting and sad.

The demise of the pub is a social change with a visible consequence in the buildings you can go out and notice it. I like to look around and see what trends I can pick-out and travelling by bike is very good. You can go far enough to cover a fair area, yet at the same time you can still look around.

Today's ride was strangely satisfying even though it was cold, wet and miserable. It was as if the weather gods had decided that we had had to much fun with two days of clear light and needed to be reminded that Januaries are meant to be dour.

The satisfaction came from that strange mixture of pride at having shown the resolve to get out and odd exhilaration as cold air and a gentle spray of water made the skin feel tingly. That said I did not want to stay out too long. And if I'm being honest the greatest pleasure was stopping and going back to a warm house, a big mug of tea, and a bun

Janathon Day 21: A badger, a fox, and an ideal

Janathon day 21: Walk 8.1km, Time 1hr 30min, Weather clear, sunny and cold

I might be getting a little carried away with the animal theme by stretching it to carvings of a badger and a fox - but what can I do? When you pass something like this in the middle of the woods, you have to take a photo.

This picture is the first away from home turf. I had a meeting in Welwyn Garden City this morning and so went for my walk there. It was really more of an aimless  wander around some streets and along a disused railway track, into Sherrardspark Wood, a place full of tracks and bridal paths - perfect for running (even if it is not that large).

The remarkable thing about WGC is that it hardly feels like a town at all, with wide avenues and grass swards, which is exactly how it was planned. it was meant to be a combination of town and country, with plenty of parks and allotments throughout, encircled by an agricultural green belt. it was meant to be large enough to be self sufficient but not too big. initially the ceiling was set at 30,000 and even now WGC is not that huge at 43,000.

It feels a very orderly place.

From the Hemel point of view there is a direct link from the founding father of WGC,  Ebenezer Howard, who also established of the Garden City Association, which in turn became the Town and Country Planning Association. It was this body which provided the intellectual framework and arguments for the establishment of the New Towns after the War. WGC can thus be seen as the direct antecedent of Hemel but it is more affluent, more middle class, quieter. It is also smaller, Hemel is nearly twice the size.

What I don't know is how much current residents respond to the idealism of the towns foundation. Me - I love stories and the story of how one man could influence others to found towns, and a city, across the country, is remarkable. 

When I look at the houses I see a 100 year old vision of what would make for a good life.

Janathon Day 20: A walk and a donkey

Janathon Day 20: Walk 10.92km, Time 2hrs 10min, Weather once more a damp grey

As we all know Janathon has many rooms. Not everyone is able to run everyday, some will have a different main exercise, whilst others like IrunbecauseIlovefood will go for the prize of attempting the greatest variety of activities (kick boxing should definitely be worth double points). Me I am competing in the cute animal section - so today I bring you a donkey.

Today also illustrated one of the advantages of walking over running - you can catch a bus back. This is impossible for me when running, as I sweat too much and carry no extra clothing to keep me warm when I stop; however after a walk there are no problems. This gives a certain freedom in route planning as you can walk further from home.

I suppose the running alternative would be to take a bus ride and run back. I can see the advantage to this when planning a long run as part of marathon training.  You are forced to run the distance because you need to get home - there are no short cuts. A friend of mine used this method in his training, except without the bus, his wife used to drive him to the point of abandonment.

But I think I prefer the walking order: exercise, coffee and then bus.

All I did today was walk to Berkhamsted along the canal. Although the weather had decided to revert to grey mizzle, it was actually very pleasant. I don't know why but today I exchanged greetings with everyone I passed - this is not the norm but obviously some days are more friendly than others. Even the donkey was friendly - he came up wanting to be petted, though that was a bit difficult through the barrier of a hedge and barbed wire

Janathon Day 19: Festival of Britain Day

Janathon Day 19: Cycle 20 miles, Time 1hr 28min, Weather bright but with a cold, sharp wind

Days can be full of coincidence. On my ride today I noticed this village sign, which had obviously been put-up to commemorate the 1951 Festival of Britain.  Good topic I thought - I could write about why the Festival Hall is one of my favourite buildings or the design of the logo, which I think is a very fine piece of work (obviously these are topics crying out to be covered in what is meant to be a running blog).

I was still thinking about this whilst listening to PM when they had an item about a new attempt to find the remains of Skylon, in the River Lee. Well knock me down with a feather! The fates have obviously decreed it is officially Festival of Britain day.

Skylon was erected as a result of a competition, the brief of which was wonderfully vague:  completely abstract design or one that related to the overall theme of the exhibition. It could be three-dimensional, or be made of water, gas, balloons or coloured lights. In other words it could have been anything but in the event it was rather magical: a suspended object suggesting a slim space rocket or javelin, which also glowed at night.

It was exceptionally popular but it only lasted  year because Winston Churchill, who was then Prime Minister, thought it was a piece of socialist propaganda and ordered it to be dismantled. Why it would then be thrown in the Lee, I have no idea but obviously the people in today's news item must have some clue.

But I want to return to the FoB logo for a couple of reasons. The first is to celebrate it as a clear, assured, design (especially when compared to logo for the current big event: the 2012 Olympics). The second is to continue  a theme started by Cake of Good Hope, who played around with the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster and also used the wording of its sister poster "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will bring us Victory".

I know these are now popular as an almost ironical reference to the pluck and stoicism of the wartime generation but the fact is they were seriously useless pieces of propaganda. Although the typography was good the message was way off. In particular "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will bring us Victory" caused a lot of resentment because it suggested quite clearly the them and us attitude of the toffs and nabobs - the ordinary people were meant to show all the courage to ensure victory for the ruling class.

The thing is that these were very early efforts from the Ministry of Information, the work of existing civil servants. They realised their mistake ('Mass Observation' gave very good information about the mood of the nation) and then upped their game for the rest of the war by hiring writers and artists. Some of the later wartime posters were very fine.

This brings me back to the Festival of Britain. The logo was designed by Abram Games who produced some great wartime posters such as:

Janathon Day 18: When walking is transport

Janathon Day 18: Walk17km, Time 3hr 10min, Weather sun and blue skies

I take it all back - all those gloomy thoughts about the endless grey days of January, the complaints about it being miserable. It only takes a little bit of sun and everything is forgotten - and today was delightfully sunny. it may be pathetic but my mood is massively influenced by daylight: if it is there I am happy, if it is not I am not.

There had however been a massive amount of rain in the night and in the morning droplets of water were still clinging to branches and leaves - so that is today's picture.

Today I tried something different. Instead of walking in a circle, I had a purpose. I wanted to go to Watford but instead of going by car, I walked. Leaving early and allowing plenty of time made it perfectly feasible and in doing this I feel like I was going back to a time when walking 10 miles to get somewhere would have been normal. 

On my journey I thought of Dickens and the amazing distances covered on foot in his novels. I also thought of the biography of Harold Larwood (a book I would thoroughly recommend if you have even the slightest interest in cricket; even if you don't it is a fascinating story of the social attitudes of Britain between the wars). 

"He walked six miles every day to work in the colliery. He walked four miles on Saturdays to watch silent movies in the afternoon 'penny rush' at the picture house. He thought nothing of walking a dozen miles or so to play local league cricket...In winter he would walk for miles around country roads in north Nottinghamshire. There were no gyms or sophisticated training techniques for Larwood. Walking was the only way he could keep himself fit. Well into his old age he would talk about how important all the walking had been to build up his strength and stamina and to firm up the muscles of his legs… The walking enabled him to bowl between 600-850 overs a season every season before the Bodyline tour and deliver 1,687 balls during it."

I comfort myself with thoughts that even if I am not running I am doing something that ought to build stamina.

Janathon Day 17: It was wet

Janathon Day 17: Walk 8.6km, Time 1hr 50min, Weather wet

Yes it was that wet! I can do no better than use a horse's head to show the soaking we received.

To those who rather smugly say "there is no bad weather, only bad clothing" I say 'Pshaw!' My anorak is perfectly fine and my boots are waterproof, but I still huddle into myself when it is pouring. The underlying mood is defensive, rather than expansive. 

Nevertheless there is fun to be had. As long as you don't have to go too long and get too wet and cold, walking in the rain is enjoyable. It is more than feeling virtuous for not hiding away; it is an actual sensory pleasure. There is the sound of the droplets as they hit your anorak, the movement in the air as you see the rain fall, the ripples and splashes in puddles, and a clean taste to the air. Best of all is the sense of still and quiet when the rain stops.

I don't think the horse thought it was the best of times: he looks as if he thought the rain just went on a little bit too long.

Janathon Day 16: monkey in a conservatory

Janthon Day 16: Walking 6.5km, Time 1hr 10min, Gym activity unquantifiable, Weather grey and windy (again)

I am trying very hard with my animal theme this Juanthon.

The basic rule is that going to Whipsnade Zoo would be cheating (fish, barrel, shooting) - even if it is a nice cycle ride away. I am allowed only pictures of things I come across in the course of my peregrinations. There is however no rule to say the creatures have to be real or living (I have already got away with a poster of an alpaca instead of the real thing).

So for your entertainment today: I offer a monkey in a conservatory.

Now I'm not sure even this is fair game - after all you have to give the credit to the person who decided to turn their conservatory into a rainforest but it will have to do.

Today's walk was a few miles further along the canal than normal as I started from Berkhamsted, where they have an outdoor gym. 

Natalie Bowers has already described her outdoor gym, so I thought I ought to join in the fun. And fun it was as the machines give you permission to be act like a kid in a playground. Of all the toys serious pieces of fitness equipment, the walking machine was the most disorientating. It had a platform for each foot that swung like a pendulum. The arc it proscribed was like walking but not very much. After hammering away at it for some time it completely disrupted my senses, so when I tried to walk on the path I felt like a sailor who had been afloat for several months, i.e. all over the place.

I have thus found a way to feel drunk without actually drinking. I will mark that down as another Janathon discovery.

Janathon Day 15: The rubble of an industrial past

Janathon Day 15: Walk 11.3km, Time 2hr 20min, Weather grey and windy

Although I have done quite well so far photographing animals I have failed with diggers. We obviously need diggers to show the economy has not totally frozen-up and there are still earthworks being done in Hemel.

So I wandered down the canal to a site I know is being developed. There were diggers but I had a slight change of plan as I liked the look of the rock crushing machines, parked neatly between a huge mound of rubble and some big skips. I will have to make up for it later with real diggers.

The kid in me likes watching heavy plant: they have a faint look of dinosaurs hunting their rock prey.  The name also amuses me, whenever I see a road warning sign saying "heavy plant crossing" I always imagine trees on the march. It doesn't take much to keep me happy!

That said I have mixed feelings about this particular development. it is on the site of the old John Dickinson paper mill at Nash Mills and any connection with large scale paper manufacture in the area has now been bulldozed away. I find this sad because because continuous paper making was pioneered at Apsley, a couple of miles away, at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century and for two centuries this area was at the heart of the industry. 

But all companies, like any type of organism, have a life cycle and the economics of manufacture change. They stopped making paper here in 2006 and you cannot keep an old works empty to gradually decay, something has to be done with the land.

But I will miss the old brick wall backing onto the canal. I like to be reminded of the industrial past of canals  and how many of the buildings alongside them were manufacturing works or warehouses. I like a sense of history and a visible thread but once the land is covered in bijou apartments and houses it is all lost.

However whatever the scenery, whether it is open countryside, the backend of a town, or desirable housing I love being by the canal,  even when I am only walking. I might have a certain amount of envy when I look at the runners who pass, but it is small and I know it should be managed by saying to myself 'I will soon be doing that'. However it is difficult, when the knee seems to be healing in geological time, to stop myself saying 'I used to do that'. 

That is not the right tense. I might want a sense of history when I look at the canal but I don't want that history to be me

Janathon Day 14: Razed beds

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 18^th 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