2011 Streak Day 267 (Tues Sept 27th): Maintenance

2011 Streak Day 267 (Tues Sept 27th): Walk 2 miles time 40 min, Weather - mizzly in the morning but it lifted and the afternoon  was wonderfully warm and sunny.

Maintenance is either the great joy or great pain of cycling. It has to be done to make sure everything is running well and to keep the bike looking nice but my attitude to it is extremely variable. Some days, especially when it cold and bleak, I don't want to do it. When my fingers are icy everything is fiddly and hard,. I tend to drop the tiny components and curse a lot. However on days like this I find tremendous contentment.

The sun is out, the air is warm, and I quietly and calmly take the pieces apart, clean them and put them back, adjusting tensions and checking things are running true. There is something satisfying about working with your hands and when I am in this mood it feels almost meditative.

I claim no great knowledge or skill. I just do the simple things but mostly that is all you need to do.

Cleaning the chain is probably the main bit of bicycle maintenance but I don't think cleaning features in any book of running maintenance. For running maintenance the emphasis is on tension i.e. stretching. In the past this is something I have neglected and it has built up problems. I regret I was not assiduous enough.

As part of my new beginning I have decided to take stretching more seriously and uncouple it from running (i.e. only do it after a run). I am now doing a few stretches every morning. Only for 10 minutes but the principle is, once more, that if you do something regularly you will gradually see improvements.

2011 Streak Day 266 (Monday Sept 26th): Public and private space

2011 Streak Day 266 (Monday Sept 26^th): Walk - 3 miles , Time -1hr Weather - drizzly to start but the grey clouds were later blown away to be replaced with whiter clouds and patches of blue

If I wasn't trying to record so form of exercise each day I would have paid no attention to today's walking. It was just there and back, there and back, around Watford, running some errands and visiting the hospital. Nothing much to report.

I did however spot a notice in the shopping centre forbidding photography. It reminded me of how many of what we think of as public spaces are now privately owned. I can remember feeling vaguely outraged a few years ago when the shopping centre of Milton Keynes (which is actually the town centre, but under a roof, was passed into private ownership but was frankly amazed when, in 2008, I read about the development in Liverpool which would hand over existing public streets to a private landlord ( half way down this extract from the book Real England by Paul Kingsnorth). But I should have been more clued up Anna Minton wrote a report for RICS on the privatisation of public space in 2006 (followed up by a book in 2009 Ground control).

I mention these things not because they have anything to do with running but because they are related to the other side of the project, which is to explore my local environment.

Before I knew of the ban on photography in the Harlequin Centre I had not felt constrained because as I had had no desire to take pictures of shopping but know I know I can't I feel miffed. What is the problem with taking photographs?

Perhaps I ought to rethink my attitude to recording shops after all they are a significant indication of the health and nature of any town.  Shopping is probably  the country's dominant pass time and if I am exploring my environment it is blinkered to ignore it.

But today I sidestep the issue as photo has nothing to do with shops but is of something that, at the moment, is not fettered by copyright or ownership problems - nature. there have been an enormous number of ladybirds flying and crawling about. It must be there time for mass migration. The picture shows a couple caught in a spiders web

2011 Streak Day 265 (Sunday Sept 25th): New houses

2011 Streak Day 265 (Sunday Sept 25^th): Walk 3 miles, Time 1hr, Weather lightly overcast

I have talked before about the housing development on the site of the old paper mill at Nash Mills, Just looking at the pictures I thought they looked a bit dull but it is unfair to make a judgement when it is still a building site. However some of the first phase has been completed and show homes are open so I thought it was time to have a nose around.

There are two developers Linden Homes and Crest Nicholson. Of the two Linden Homes had the right attitude: saying the houses are open, just look round. Crest Nicholson were far more arsey. The show homes could only be approached through their sales office and they would not let people look round unaccompanied; you had to have an appointment. Obviously they wanted to discourage time-wasters.

So if I was going to buy I would buy from Linden but I am not going to buy. 

The show homes looked very nice and cosy with many nice features but the rooms were small. As an empty show home it looked great but if you started to think how you would actually live and where you would put everything you realised things were not so rosy. No matter how much the developers might want to, it cannot be wished away - everybody has stuff and stuff takes up physical space. You need to be able to contain it. A small example: the master bedroom in one of the houses only had one place you could put a double bed (but not a king sized bed) but there was no room for a bedside table. Where would you put a light or your radio alarm, or glass of water? they are all common requirements.  

There is a new campaign that has been launched by RIBA called HomeWise. They have published a report 'The case for space' which argues that in our homes we need an appropriate amount of space to support our patterns of living.

There used to be a standard. The Parker Morris Committee reported in 1961 and after analysing the way people at the time lived laid down the minimum requirements for rooms. However the standard was removed in the 1980s when the government decided that market would provide what people wanted and it should not be hindered by pesky little things like space standards. The nearest thing we now have are some requirements recently introduced by the Greater London Authority.

The report contains a small survey of some new developments and found they do not meet these new space requirements. The floor area of the average new three bedroom home is only 92% of the recommended minimum size but the most common new 3 bedroom house is smaller still at 77% of the recommended size

You can read the report and find out how much our living space has shrunk and how important it is. it certainly chimes with what I thought as I came away from looking at these new houses.

They are not good "machines for living". I thought.

But I really don't know how the RIBA campaign gets traction (it has so far been only a passing news item). Currently the whole public attitude and every news item is dominated by the idea of how poor we now are. A plan to make our houses bigger is not an easy fit with the woeful mood.

Nevertheless it is important. Houses last a long time and we are storing up problems for ourselves

2011 Streak Day 264 (Saturday Sept 24th): Attention

2011 Streak Day 264 (Saturday Sept 24^th):Walk 4.5 miles, Time 1hr 25min, Weather - bright and sunny but with a slightly cool breeze

Another canal photo but not as an illustration of my walk (which today was mostly in London) but to show a quality of timelessness. In black and white it is not immediately obvious how old it might be. The design of narrow boats has not changed much in over a century, and water and trees look much the same. There are no obvious signifiers of the 21^st Century. However some details that show it is modern: the power gantry for the railway behind and the stretched polythene film covering the dry dock. But it is not obvious and  I like the sense of stillness.

The photo is there to represent the idea of attention as it is time to talk about my programme of mindfulness.

In some ways I see this as being similar to running. The essential requirement is consistency - finding he time each day and sticking to the schedule. Also you are not competing with any one else, you are trying to develop your own capabilities. Just like running there are frustration that you are unable to perform as well as your self-image would like and just as in running there are good, average, and bad days. But bottom line all that matters is keeping on.

However consistency is not easy. At various times in my life I have tried meditation in order to increase my awareness and always it has been a damp squib. I think I always expected too much - some vivid insight or sense of transformation; when that did not happen I drifted away.

Now however I hope to put my running experience to good use. With running I have long abandoned the hope of a startling transformation to make me fast. Nevertheless I can find a satisfaction that is hard to reconcile with the harsh statistics of how far and how fast I actually go. Through running I have learnt to keep on going through the disappointment of not being as good as I hoped I might be.

Another lesson from running is that the best way to start anything is with a schedule. If you have a timetable you have the security of knowing what you should be doing and the satisfaction of ticking things off, which are powerful inducements.

So this has been the first week of following the Mindfulness programme of Mark Williams and Danny Penman. It has been quite straightforward 8 minutes, morning and evening, of breathing.

This is probably the most common of all meditations. It involves sitting still and observing the breath - not trying to control it but just being aware of what happens when you breath. It could be the slight, tickly feeling on the top lip as the air crosses it,  it could be the way the chest or diaphragm move, or it could be any other, related sensation. All that matters is that an automatic activity, which goes on every minute of every day that you live,  ceases to be invisible and becomes the focus of attention.

It is impossible to concentrate completely on the breath and only on the breath. Thoughts will always bubble up. But the idea is to be aware of that and not indulge them. Just tell them that you will think about them later as you escort them from the premises.

I am patchy at doing this as my problems are twofold the first is that it is not natural for me to leave thoughts alone, the second is part of by mind always watches what I do and makes judgements. The power of both of these habits somehow has to be lessened.

This is why the lessons from running can be useful. They have taught me that you cannot set impossible targets (i.e. expecting lifelong mindsets to suddenly change) but you can improve by sticking at it.

My plan is thus to do this for at least eight weeks but it might take longer. If I don't think one of the weeks has gone well enough then I will repeat it. My aim is to feel satisfied with each week.

So far this week has been good.

2011 Streak Day 263 (Friday Sept 23rd ): A beautiful morning

2011 Streak Day 263 (Friday Sept 23^rd ): Walk 4 miles, Time 1hr 5min, Weather - a beautiful autumn day

It is amazing what a difference a little sun can make.

This morning I looked out of the window and saw both a layer of mist and a rising sun. You could tell that the day was going to be warm and that the mist would soon be burnt off. You knew it was going to be one of those days that can persuade you that autumn is the best season.

I felt a great desire to take some photographs. I was keen to find some of mist hovering over water, with boats catching the early rays of light. I rushed out of the house.

During grey days I sometimes struggle to find enthusiasm because I know pictures will look flat. There have been far to many grey days this year. But clear autumn light is a wonderful thing and you have to take advantage of it when you can.

Unfortunately I was a little too late - the mist had just about gone when I arrived at the canal. But it still looked wonderful. It still felt good to be alive.

Everything was waking up. People were starting work in the boat, people were walking and cycling along the towpath. It was the perfect time of day.

P.S. I wont even apologise for the fact that this is the third canal photo in a row

2011 Streak Day 262 (Thursday Sept 22nd): Waterside

2011 Streak Day 262 (Thursday Sept 22^nd): Walk 6 miles, Time 1hr 50min, Weather grey but not unpleasant, a bit muggy

The bright skies are replaced with familiar grey but a walk along the canal is still pleasant.

The only thing of note to report about the walk was a conversation with a boat owner who had just fallen in the canal. She said she was tying-up but that the front of her boat is small and she just tipped over. Last time she did it she ruined her shoes and ever since she had worn trainers, which I think, this time, will survive.

She was amazingly cheerful. I think it is one of those silly, stupid things that you want to laugh about rather than become annoyed or despairing. I just happened to be passing (after she had sorted herself out, as I did not see her in the water) and so I was the one she told. It might have not been a nice experience to slip into the water but it made for a pleasant conversation.

Odd shared moments like are the difference between a plod and an enjoyable walk

2011 Streak Day 261 (Wednesday Sept 21st): This was a good day

2011 Streak Day 261 (Wednesday Sept 21^st): Walk 5.7 miles, Time 1hr 50min, Weather - bright and clear , sun and fluffy clouds

One of the interesting things about trying to catch up with myself, writing my blog posts in retrospect, is that it forces me to remember my recent past. Normally I would have no reason to relive events of a couple of weeks ago but now I do. Armed with a few jotted notes from the day and a photo I close my eyes and try to picture what happened.

Some days are so featureless it is difficult to sense their shape or anything clear that happened, whilst others are bright and sharp.

This is one of those sharp days, when it felt good to be alive and I felt lucky being able to do what I was doing.

The sun was out and although it was not spectacularly warm, it felt like one of those clear autumn days that lift the spirits. I was walking along the canal, which for some reason it looked more beautiful than ever, and I had a purpose. I was walking the 6 miles to The Rex  to see a film (Sarah's Key).

I could breath deeply and think of how I was uniting two of the great attractions of the area: the canal and one of the most attractive cinema interiors in the country. If I cannot stand upright, breath deeply and appreciate those things and everything else around me, then I would indeed be a very sad case.

Some days this 2011 project is the easiest thing in the world.  

2011 Streak Day 260 (Tuesday Sept 20th): Kitchen timers

2011 Streak Day 260 (Tuesday Sept 20^th): Cycle - 22.79, Time - 1hr 48min, Weather - overcast and blustery

Let me explain why I had to cycle to Watford again:

My new-beginning programme not only includes a gradual picking-up of exercise levels but also the start of a mindfulness programme. The course I will be following is outlined  in the book Mindfulness by Mark Williams and Danny Penman and lasts 8 weeks.

I will talk about this in a later post but for now I will concentrate on practicalities - more specifically the need for a kitchen timer.

If I am going to meditate for a specific amount of time I need something to tell me when to stop (or more accurately when I am allowed to give up) - a kitchen time is the obvious answer. I had already come across the idea of the kitchen timer as a productivity tool in the Oliver Burkeman book Help, and had been meaning to buy one for some time (naturally he also has something relevant to say about procrastination). So it was obvious that my first act on a Monday morning would be to go out buy a timer in a way that also involved exercise (hence the cycle to Watford).

It was a good idea and Monday was a pretty good day so I thought the programme had started well except … except the timer was no good. For some reason it made a little bleeping noise every 5 minutes, which for my purposes was useless. So I had to go back again, return it and get a different timer - one that is silent until all the time has expired

Now a kitchen timer is not an expensive piece of kit and if I had gone by car both times I would probably have spent more on travel and parking than the thing was worth. Good job I have a bike!

P.S. Oliver Burkeman also suggests using a timer to cut down on time wasted on-line (you know the way one click can lead to another in a meandering aimless way until you wake up and realise a chunk of the day has just disappeared). In the long run that might be as important an act of mindfulness as meditating twice a day

2011 Streak Day 259 (Monday Sept 19th): Getting ready for Potter

2011 Streak Day 259 (Monday Sept 19^th): Cycling - 23 miles, Time - 1hr 41min, Weather - blue skies

Turning over a new leaf means cycling to Watford. 

I wanted to buy something from the shops, so rather than taking the car I used my bike and felt good doing so.  For the first time for ages I felt air rushing past my cheeks, a sense of speed above ambling, and a feeling of connection with the outside world.

On my way I passed Leavesden Studios where they are building the Harry Potter Experience. There is still a lot of work to do and the landscape around the studio buildings looks rather bleak. In the meantime there is the attraction of a lonely digger toiling away.

I don't understanding the attraction of a studio experiences (the film is the thing, not the box it was made in). Trying to recreate some of the atmosphere of the film is a bit like those museums where they dress up in period costume and talk in cod olde English - it feels false. But there again I am a grumpy old man and not the target audience.

I can even imagine that my grumpiness will increase in March (when it opens) as I might need a new route. This road, which at the moment is pleasantly quite, will be full of wizards.

But I must not get worried by the anticipation of some future mild inconvenience (that would be truly pathetic). I must enjoy being in the open air and the sensation of movement.

All I have is this particular moment

2011 Streak Day 258 (Sunday Sept 18th): New term

2011 Streak Day 258 (Sunday Sept 18^th): Walk 1 mile, Time 20min, Weather patchy

Every year, at around this time I look at this wall and admire the way the leaves, which only a few days previously were green, have turned lustrous red. Very soon they will fall and the brickwork will show bare. It is a marker of autumn.

Although some of the most beautiful days of the year are in autumn it is the season of decline as plant growth slows or stops, leaves fall and we move towards winter. Paradoxically I still think of it as a beginning. I have not attended school for many more years than I care to admit but still burnt in my psyche is the idea that the new term (new year) starts in September.

I like to continue with that idea by having the idea for some new beginning, project or challenge to offset the coming gloom of shorter, colder days. September/October marathons (or halfs) might be a culmination of work done over the summer but their execution is still something to anticipate as a good achievement. Unfortunately there will be none of that this year. Not only have I pulled out of Folkestone I have no desire to try and replace it with a later race as I feel far from fit.

But I cannot be lolling around like this, feeling sub optimum. This day must be a marker. It must be the last day where I barely raise my heart rate. Once more I must start doing things that feel more like exercise.

These red leaves are a reminder to start making plans

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)