Yet another thread about Gear Zone.
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Archive for the 'Rambling on…' Category
A Fine Summer Morning
I woke early to find the Sun was up before me. The low shafts of golden light flooded my surroundings with an unexpected warmth after the stormy weather of the previous days and nights. At last… a warm morning... a calm morning... a dry morning. The prospects for the day were good.
Old habits die hard and this morning was no exception. Water on for a brew, tea and breakfast consumed and then the first ciggy of the day sent curling veils of smoke drifting away on the light breeze. There was a special quietness about the place, the sort that makes you feel guilty when you break it.
I pulled on my boots and stepped out into the world. An extended family of blackbirds were foraging nearby, not minding my intrusion into their territory. Slowly the other resident wildlife announced itself to the new day... voles scuttled around in the undergrowth... a hedgehog rustled in the leaf-litter on a quest for worms and slugs... a thrush had found a juicy snail and was busy thrashing it against a well-used anvil-stone, this latter fact being borne out by the adjacent pile of discarded shell-shards.
I strolled through the long dew-laden grass, marvelling at the variety of wild flowers and seed-heads. Each step sent a shower of silver droplets into the air around my feet, and soon I was wet from the knees down.
I wandered over to a hoary old willow tree and stood beneath its canopy of weeping branches. The ground was drier there, and beneath my feet a multitude of insect lives were going about their daily routines, oblivious to the giant standing amid their microcosm. In the branches above, more birds were waking from their overnight roosts and the chorus was soon in full swing.
This was a place to tarry a while, to soak up the atmosphere, to appreciate the wonders that Nature puts in even the wildest of places. I sat back against the trunk of the tree and relaxed without a care, watching the world go by at its own pace.
I was so engrossed in this place that it took a long time for me to realise that I was not alone. Looking back down the slope I noticed a lone figure approaching. Not wanting anyone to spoil my appreciation of the morning, I slipped around to the other side of the tree in the hope that the intruder would pass by without noticing me, but it was to no avail. When the newcomer reached my place of rest I looked up, smiled and ventured a polite “Good Morning”.
The reply of “Haven’t you cut that bloody lawn yet?” wasn’t entirely unexpected.
A new day
So, what should I blog about today? So much has happened, so much is left unfinished. Let's take it one step at a time and see how it goes.
I sold my Vango TBS Tempest 200 to a nice OMer. He's got a bargain - Since I bought this one in early 2006 I've only used this one for two nights in Wasdale, aside from that it's been pitched on the lawn a couple of times and that's it. The new owner will also get a home-made GSP and some spare lightweight pegs etc.. I hope that he gets good use from the tent, it's been in captivity for far too long, it needs releasing into the wild ASAP! As a replacement I've ordered a 1-2 man tent for summer wildcamping use, not superlightweight at sub-3kg, but that's all I need. Details to follow in due course.
Bought a selection of Sea to Summit mesh sacks from WT via Amazon. The medium size ones will suffice for all sorts of stuff, the large and extra-large were bought specifically for carrying saturated tentage on the outside of the pack.
Now, don't laugh, but I bought a JML Magnicard. When I'm "on the hill", I take my specs but never wear them, primarily because I don't really need them. Besides, they're forever steamed up or frosted over, so they are a waste of time, but I've always carried them for those map-reading moments. But from now on they can stay back at base, as the Magnicard is excellent for map-reading. It's the size of a credit-card, gives a clear view and it's got an integral light which is perfect for night-time mapwork. It weighs a paltry 10g, that's a lot less than my specs + case.
Cars:
Well, Rab's been fixed, he's been back with me since Thursday. The repair work is excellent, credit to Paynes Ford for that. Mind you, SWMBO is a relative of the founder, so if I didn't get good service I would have to send her in to get matters sorted! The courtesy-car company still haven't collected their Rav4 yet, so we're overrun with vehicles here.
Garden:
I've been out with the hedge-trimmers again! All 60 yards of the privet boundary have been given a "short back and sides". The remaining 50 yards of boundary are fenced, so I'll have to spend a couple of days renewing my acquaintance with my creosote brush very soon. As for the plants, well, that's a mixed bag... the herb border is flourishing, the wild native plant area is, well, wild as would be expected, but the French Beans aren't showing at all. Mind you, that's the French for you, they either turn up late or not at all 🙂
People:
Me and OM are no longer together. It's a shame, really, because there are so many people on there who I call friends, and some of them even reciprocate! Anyway, the reasons for my departure are plain for those who are willing to look, so I don't need to go into depth on here, let it suffice to say that a known antagonist was the source of irritation, but moderation (which I requested) was inadequate and as a consequence the matter was allowed to get out of hand. That was the straw that broke this camel's back.
Hmmm... so I'm a "weak willed, pathetic individual", according to the antagonist. Or did I see the true situation, assess it properly and then have the courage of my convictions to take an appropriate course of action? Who can say? It was certainly harder to leave that it would have been to stay.
What's next?
We're off to Okehampton next week for a YHA Family multi-activity break. Sadly, mountain-biling (stet), cross-training and rowing aren't on the activity list!
Mountain Safety Man blogs!
Well, last night we watched Wainwright's Walks 4/4 Scafell Pike on BBC4. The web blurb is as follows: In the last in the series exploring the work of Britain's most famous fell-walker, Alfred Wainwright, Julia Bradbury attempts to climb England's highest peak.
JB did the walk from Seathwaite, starting out at what seemed to be an average time in the morning after having a chat with Joss Naylor. The route took her over Stockley Bridge, up the Gill, a scenic detour around Sprinkling Tarn, back up to the true Esk Hause then via Calf Cove and the Ill Crag / Broad Crag massif to Broad Crag col and then the final pull up to the summit. A fine route, and, as she says, a long route.
Now, she was atop Scafell Pike quite late, after walking for over ten hours, so she said. The sun was lowering and the sky was turning a hazy reddish colour. Let's assume that she left Seathwaite at approx 8:00 a.m., that would put her at the summit at 6:00 p.m. Then bear in mind that she says that she's not a very experienced walker - according to her, Haystacks (programme 1/4) was her first Wainwright.
Doesn't leave much time for the return, especially with a camera crew in tow, does it? And it's not as if you can get back to Seathwaite easily without either retracing the route or dropping down to the Corridor Route - there's no short-cut back to base on any map that I've ever seen.
I'm more than a little bit concerned that armchair/novice walkers will be inspired by JB to tackle this route, arrive at the top knackered in the late afternoon, think that it's OK because they saw it on the telly, start back and then get benighted before ending up as MRT statistics.
Overall, the series has been excellent - varied routes and objectives, good scenic shots, and chats with notable characters such as Joss Naylor. The trouble is, it's all a bit misleading and it could tempt the unwary into more trouble than they can cope with.
Discuss.
Another weekend slips by
Well, what with all this slide-scanning and Six Nations going on, and with intensive periods of decorating and gardening slotted in between, this weekend passed by as usual - no proper outdoors activities.
On the plus side, the scanning is progressing well - I've done all of the ones I took in the Faeroe Islands (Note - the link is to a .pdf file that I found online). The finished quality isn't brilliant, but that's down to the slides, not the scanner. My pics will be uploaded to my photohost within the next few days, when I've found the correct spellings for the captions (not as easy as it seems on a UK laptop keyboard!).
Oh, and we booked a Family Activity holiday at Okehampton YHA, so the kids are quite excited. Not sure whether I want to do a rock-climbing & gorge-scrambling day, or do the climbing wall and then kayaking. Decisions, decisions...
A busy week
Wahey, I've actually started gutting the bathroom in preparation for the refurb. A couple of days of destructive DIY have resulted in all of the old tiles being hacked off, only to reveal that the plaster underneath is in a bad state and needs replacing before the re-tiling can commence. Oh, what joy, more plastering, I just love plastering. NOT!
Had a telephone chat with Weird Darren yesterday about blagging tickets for the OS Outdoors Show. I had to decline his kind offer of some potentially free tickets, as I've already got ours printed out and sitting on the mantleshelf. He let slip that Podcast Bob might be pointing his mike and videocam in my direction (he's checking out the Blogger Scene, man!) so I might have to go in disguise (maybe I'll wear a false beard, lol).
Anyway, it snowed today, so lots of the local schools were affected. Typically, the junior school was open and the high school was closed, so my attention had to be split between walking Annabelle to school (see * below), attending to Elanor during her day off, chipping away at the bathroom and keeping everything quietish while SWMBO worked from home (the roads were too bad for her to drive to work, plus this weather isn't good for her asthma).
(* - just to clarify, it went like this... walk to school, take her in, get told that she needed a swimming kit, walk back home, get kit, get suckered into walking Ella to her friend's house after dropping off the kit, walk home, work a bit, tidy up, walk back to school, pick up Anna, walk back home. Turns out that it adds up to over 7 miles. There's a certain irony about the situation - I've been known to drive hundreds of miles and camp out in ridiculous conditions for whole weekends in order to walk 7 miles in the snow... maybe I've been doing it wrong all along, eh?)
