The Escape of Temple Cloud (and Wookey)

This is a copy of my blog about doing the  Big Issue BigStep Challenge to raise money for the Big Issue Foundation which helps homeless people.  If you want to donate, please go to this site.

Saturday 15^th September 2018

One drawback to long walks like yesterday's is that they make short walks seem a bit tame for comparison. This morning I knew I wasn't ready to do another all-day walk, but just wandering round Harridge Woods didn't seem like much of an adventure. Fortunately, my Beloved Partner needed to go to Wookey anyway, so I suggested that we should drive in together have lunch at the Hub, and he should leave me to walk home on my own.

I took the opportunity, while passing through Wells, to pick up a greetings card for apologising to a friend I had badly upset. After some thought, I chose one with the motto, 'In alcohol's defense, I've done some pretty stupid stuff while completely sober.' This seemed a reasonable assessment of most of the major mistakes of my life. The only other card that tempted me was the one that read, 'Follow your dreams. Except the one where you're naked at work.'

The rest of the walk home was retracing the route I'd taken yesterday, so what can I say about it? Ah, yes: this autumn's colour is red. 

Each season has its dominant colours. Early spring is yellow with daffodils, celandines, primroses, and forsythia. Mid-spring is white with hawthorn blossom, and late spring is blue with bluebells and forget-me-nots. Summer is purple with thistles, orchids, and vetches. September, then, brings a profusion of ripe fruit, most of it red: apples, rose-hips and hawthorn berries, bryony, catoneaster, yew-berries, and a few more I can't identify. 

Yes, there is also the delicious black juiciness of ripe blackberries and elderberries, but mostly the countryside is dominated by red fruit and reddening leaves.

But what about the grey of misty morning skies, each looking different and fascinating when I photograph them, even though I know the photographs will be too similar to each other for it to be worth keeping most of them? That is also a dominant image of September. 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness...' - and when Keats could sum up autumn so succinctly in one line, I don't know why I'm trying to add anything more.

Tuesday 18^th September 2018

For the last few days I've been a bit too busy to write, but I'd like to confirm that my walk on Sunday 16th August consisted of walking up to Binegar Church and back.  I noticed that it took me an hour to walk there on my own - much faster than I had expected - and the Beloved, who had had to go to the service at Ashwick to play the organ, commented that he had walked this in half an hour, which was also faster than he thought he usually walked.  We agreed that walking together slows us down, because we notice things and point them out to each other - which definitely makes the walk more enjoyable.

Nonetheless, I've enjoyed the challenge of walking on my own.  It makes me greedy to discover more and more of Somerset, as I realise how much of it is within walking distance.  It may not have made me lose weight (not that I was trying to, as I'm a healthy weight anyway, and therefore I made sure I ate enough food to give me the energy to walk on - but I think readers should be aware that pedometers can aid weight loss only as part of a calorie-controlled diet).  It may not have made me serene for very long (I've spent the last couple of days since the walk finished being depressed and paranoid and very stressful to live with, barely sleeping and not giving the Beloved much chance to sleep either).  But while I was doing the walk itself, I was cheerful because I was focused on what I was doing.  I definitely want to go on exploring.

Today, a friend who isn't comfortable with online donations (and who wishes to remain anonymous) asked whether there was another way to donate.  I explained that the Big Issue Foundation would be delighted if you sent a cheque to FREEPOST RTTS-JGTR-LRYR, The Big Issue Foundation, 113-115 Fonthill Road, Finsbury Park, London, N4 3HH.  They'd like you to download a donation form if possible, so that if you are a taxpayer they can claim GiftAid, but as long as the cheque is made payable to The Big Issue Foundation, I'm sure they don't mind.

So, thank you to everyone for your generosity.  And thank you to the Big Issue Foundation, for challenging me to do this.  And thank you to the county of Somerset, just for existing.