Slobland

West Ruislip to Elstree and Borehamwod
8 November 2015
4 people
30 km; 19 miles

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The quagmire of North East London

After days of wintry streaming rain

Under leaden skies in uncertain light

Some hardy golfers playing their game.

Riverine paths which cleaned our boots

Followed by uncertain squelchy fields

Slippery underfoot like soupy broth 

Paludal plains of muddy sticky clay.

Pressing banknotes dry in a serviette

Tea without milk in a Polish pub

Blue skies and luminous ruddy trees

A golden sunset at the end of the day.

Stiles

Knockholt to Hayes
Date 25-Oct-15
Actual Distance km 27.70
Actual Distance miles 27.70
People 10
Hours 6.12

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Russet and gold under cool sun light

Knockholt with all its glorious names

The station, pound and charming village

Rolling grassland with not a road in sight.

A flight of stiles too numerous to count

Each with double steps too high for ease

Gatherings of fairy toadstools in the grass

A crowded picnic lunch on a church step.

The High Elms country park in Autumn finery

Textured sunlight across the woodland floor

Steely reflections across the Keston Ponds

A forest walk in waning sun to Hayes. 

A Golden Sunset

Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon Common
Date 14-Oct-15
Distance miles 6.22
People 8
Hours 2.00

We strolled towards a rainbow sunset
Red blue and gold above the roofs
City lights now obscured by trees
Sleepy swans backlit by golden sun.

Wimbledon Common revealed its charm
In the dark of a moonless night
A sail less windmill to our left
Mysterious roving lights close by.

A nervous walker with his hound
An empty golf club with lights ablaze
Mansions of the village passed by
Convivial drinks at walk's end.

Epicureans Part 3

Brief Description Hassocks to Lewes
Date 26-Sep-15
Actual Distance km 23.97
Actual Distance miles 14.90
People 7
Hours walking 4.47

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Oh what a bucolic day we spent

In the gently rolling South Downs

Breathing in the pure country air

Marveling at the beauty all around!

We feasted on fresh fish and ale

We talked about life in Madrid

Pescatorial matters and other things

In Plumpton Green at the Half Moon Pub.

Replete, we slowly made our way 

A kestrel hovered above a ridge

Perfectly still in an updraught

And para-gliders bobbed in the winds.

The Old Church

Brief Description: Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Date: 22-Aug-15
Actual Distance km: 30.10
Actual Distance miles;  18.71
People: 6
Hours: 6:20

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Mushrooms grew in the grass of the fields
And blackberries ripe for the picking
Quaint country paths of Victorian times
A torrid walk up Butser Hill's chalk slopes.

That old early Norman church in the village
Fields laid out in colourful patchwork
Cooling Easterly breezes under the trees
Earthy fields where wheat had been harvested.

Old Idsworth church in the middle of a plain
Its ancient wall paintings, once whitewashed.
Gathering clouds a portent of autumnal rains
A friendly beer festival at walk's end.

Book Review: The Vorrh by Brian Catling

Adult fantasy based on an idea of French author Raymond Roussel.  Featuring both Raymond Roussel and the photography pioneer Eadweard Muybridge, the novel is set in an African town with European style architecture situated at the edge of an impenetrable forest called The Vorrh.  Features two women who both are involved (differently) with a Cyclops and two hunters who roam the forest looking for each other, one armed with a bow made from his dead lover's bones and the other with a powerful rifle.  There is also a logging operation carried out by semi-human slaves who have almost become part of the Vorrh.

An excellent book about the strangeness of life in general, with beautiful imagery of the Forest and various creatures getting lost in the Vorrh.

The Penumbra

Brief Description Haslemere to Petersfield
Date 19-Jul-15
Actual Distance km 26.70
Actual Distance miles 16.60
People 7
Hours 5.33
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Forests like Cathedrals rising perpendicular

To touch the mystical Sun above our heads

Its light penetrating in patches to our feet

A sprawling viridescence of fecund biogenesis.

Lunch in a time-warp with no wi-fi or mobiles

Forced our society into eloquent conversation

Remembering many long-forgotten pleasantries 

We rested our digits, of screen-prodding sick.

Woodlands traversed, hundreds of summers old

Under the penumbra of sessile oak and alder

Sunlight and golden wheat at the forest edge

Made us forget all our discourse of philosophy.

London Bridges Walk

"The 13 Bridges Walk"
11 people
15 July 2015
17km; 11m

Over the Tower Bridge with its thronging crowds

Across the London with its packs of suits

Returning by Southwark to the Tate Modern

London that night milled around our riverside bars.

Over the Millennium Bridge with gawping art lovers

Across the Blackfriars to visit the National

Returning by Waterloo to Cleopatra's Needle

Where people in a park discussed Affairs of State.

Over the Hungerford Bridge with theatre goers

Across the Westminster to the Houses of Parliament

Returning by Lambeth, doing our special walk

The crowds had thinned out, not a spy to be seen.

Over the Vauxhall Bridge with solitary couples

Across the Chelsea to the Park and Peace Pagoda

Albert and Battersea we only crossed virtually

As we hurried by St Peter's to Clapham Junction.

Butterflies

Knockholt to Slade Green
Date 13-Jun-15
Actual Distance km 28.40
Actual Distance miles 18.00
People 14
Hours 6.20

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A lonely horse gambolled up to us
Enjoying our company at a stile
A farmer took a break from her work
To show us the overgrown path we'd missed.

We crossed the rolling verdant land
To a large country inn on a green
The babbling river flowing happily by
In the rolling grassy Kentish downlands.

We strolled on to Crayford's marshes
Wild flowers yellow and purple at our feet
Flittering butterflies around us red and black
An old moated castle slowly sinking away.

The old abbey

Chorleywood to Great Missenden
22 March 2015
6 people
28km, 18 miles

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The sun tried to peek at us through clouds

As we had a hit or miss behind a pile of logs

And walked through woods still bare of leaves

In Spring with new crops in the fields.

Objects guessed afar on the horizon

Water tower, windmill, a stately home

People drinking their lunchtime pints 

Laughing and talking on a village green.

An old church hidden in the woodland sun

Fast post prandial walking accross the fields 

Remains of an abbey reflected in a pond

A twist in the tail and the last train home.

The Hope

Merstham to Putney

24 January 2015
19 people
21 miles
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We walked on muddy footpaths

our steps crunching splashily

through thin sheets of ice

which covered every muddy puddle.

Cold sun crossed Alderstead Heath

with long grey woodland shadows

Chaldon church stood timelessly

among the trees in its old churchyard.

We feasted on ales and stews

in Carshalton's community pub

then along the babbling Wandle

to Putney's riverside elegance.

The ostrich

Great Missenden to Amersham

7 March 2015

27 km (17 miles)

19 people

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Winter wheat harvested

Fields ready for the plough

Sun still low in the sky

Winter coats all packed away.

A puddingstone at Cholesbury

Carried here in ancient times 

Pub lunches longingly desired

An old windmill in the sun.

Grassy valleys by some woods

Lonely ostriches in a field

An old arboraceous graveyard

A tree lined walk to town.