Pilgrims' Way?

Pilgrim Brother Percival - a tribute to Pilgrims, a resident of Pilgrims Way and a neighbour of Marley tiles.

I have been on a high for two days.  I love walking through the English countryside.  I love walking through history, knowing that where I am walking generations have passed before me.  More than any other walk I have done the North Downs Way is that as much of it follows or parallels the routes that the pilgrims took to Thomas A Becket and Canterbury.  There were lodges and resting places - early tourism I suppose and this is one of the few remainders

This weekend was the first weekend walking since October (rather shocked about this!).  I didn't know how fit I was.  I am not that tall and plump.  Exercise not been a priority recently but my job means I do a lot of running around in the physical rather than the mental stage.  Just being outdoors discovering new views, light and colour refreshes me even if I do wake up to find that it is snowing!

Walking through the brutal cold in my walking gear (let's be honest about this - shabby looking Rohan fleece, trail shoes with shoe laces that should be condemned, non-matching gloves and a classy mohair scarf (Rowan aura, Kim Hargreaves design) I am happy.  I began at the Medway and finished in Lenham with a night in Detling.

Let's begin with the shock - snowing at the end of March?  Now warning on BBC.  Thank goodness for warm layers but I was not impressed!

I do owe thanks.  Traveline for warning me buses to Borstal not running on Good Friday (2 more miles on the clock!), Detling Coach House B&B for suggesting I order an Indian rather than struggling to and from the village before light failed, the Dirty Habit in Hollingbourne for one of the best BLTs I have had and not being shocked when my refill for a lime and soda was a coffee!

Having being doing bits of the walk here and there and by train it took this weekend to realise the enormity of the trail.  In part I was inspired by Brother Percival (I keep trying to call him Cuthbert), in part by British Rail (I am that generation).  There is a tribute to the pilgrims and walking in light snow brought it home to me how tough pilgrims have it and particularly those of generations before the delights of goretex.  I was grateful for my layers although the most effective was probably my iceberg wool sweater.  Wool is a great insulator. Having taken 6 hours to walk from Detling it took about 10 minutes to flash past the stations I had avoided and it took half an hour or so on the train home to flash past stations such as Otford which had taken me days to walk through and agony of legs. Some of the pilgrims never made it home, they were away for months. I could phone home, get messages via an ipad but the original pilgrims gave up everything.  We forget that.

As stated on twitter I can pack light but fail when it comes to knitting.  I carry the same amount of stuff for 1 night as I do for 3 in terms of clothes but knitting projects?  This time I was slightly weighted down by yes the blanket.  I think that Brother Percival might have appreciated a slight respite from the cold.




Working on the further routes but I know it is Dover or bust!

On the knitting front, it was an evening when 3 strands become 1 even if not perfectly blocked and stitched.

We'll always have Paris!

Knitting projects
blanket for twins
blue sweater


Twenty four years ago two of us bravely set off for Paris.  Two young historians keen to discover an extraordinary city.   We thought it would be a good time to visit - celebrate 200 years of the Revolution.  What we did not expect was that a lot of Paris would be 'ferme par la  Revolution' as we put it. Much was closed while the Parisians prepared for celebrating the Revolution.  Fortunately that did not include the Eiffel Tower, a mere baby at 100 years old but it did include the Louvre.

That visit gave me one my art highlights of a lifetime.  Rather cold and fed up we dived into the l'Orangerie as it was there and open.  We wondered around upstairs and then made our way downstairs.  I didn't know about Monet's huge waterlilly pictures and there they were.  Breathtaking.  Any time you see them they take you to another world, the peace, beauty and size are overwhelming but to see them for the first time particularly when you didn't know they were there ...

Twenty-four years on we were back.  L'Orangerie has been rebuilt, there is now a collection of impressionists and it is still one of my favourite galleries in the world. This time it is Notre Dame's turn to celebrate.  850 years old and no it is not closed ...

Slightly different perspectives - a reunion, a break and some opera.  Back in Paris and back to Wagner.  This time Walkyrie.  A few naked men but no dancing sperm (a Bayreuth abomination) - a simple production depending on musicality, light and above all great acting.  Have booked for the rest of the cycle.  My travelling extravagance of the year.

We travelled out to Fontainebleu.  Last time it was Versailles.  I hadn't realised how much of Napoleon there was there.  For the first time it struck me - just how much pomp and riches he surrounded himself with.  I wondered why it didn't seem to cause more resentment.  After all the French had only just got rid of one King and now they had an Emperor!

We've agreed - we'll always have Paris and we'll be back in 24 years time!

As for the knitting, back done of vivid blue sweater and on the outbound Eurostar I finished the final square of the blanket.  On the return I finished the embroidery.  Border and final seams to go!