Walk for Home / Shelter

It seemed like a collage was the best way to represent today’s journey.

When I was fighting to get my old landlord to return our tenancy deposit and received the partial (he had to retain his bit of power right to the bitter end) repayment, I had decided to donate it to Shelter.

In December, Shelter organise their fundraising campaign Walk for Home. 
Last year we walked by Ullswater https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2916819418803602535
The year before was similar, but different 
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2784541693788032137

This year I had wondered what to do and wanted it to be a bit symbolic. I had thought of walking from the old home to the new one but didn’t fancy the dice with death on the A66. I thought of something along the lines of ‘A Line made by Walking’ or crossing over one of the passes. I nearly went for Cross Fell but it was cloud topped and I gather there was a Helm wind later in the day. Phew! …  a lucky escape, I was forewarned there may be demons!!

So, a little Pilgrimage it was …

I decided to walk from my new home to my friend’s home.
It was a walk with a lot of twos - two buzzards, two dippers, two herons, two kingfishers, owls (twit twoo) and, of course, two holy wells (and two, yes two, cakes).

Collage (left to right)
1. ‘We’ headed off across the fields 
2.  Rivers meet. The Lyvennet joins the Eden. The Lyvennet would be my companion the rest of the way.
3. A line made walking … over the years it has become tarmac. Looking back to the Pennines.
4. Losing the backdrop drone of the A66 and slipping back in time across some very ancient tracks towards Morland.
5. Powdonnet Well 
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2140543978842361702
I stopped for vittles (smoked salmon sarnie and coffee). I rinsed my flask in holy water and called at the cafe for essential cake and thermos filled with tea.
6. Chapel Bridge and Chapel Well https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2965017632832491493
7. Between Kings Meaburn and High Whitber I got a bit lost but by this time had seen the dippers and kingfishers : )
Be warned, the stepping stones marked on the map near High Whitber are no more. I stopped for fortification with holy water infused tea and cake and retraced my steps.
8. The Picnic Tree. I was slowing down and it was getting dark so I put my hi-vis on and joined the road for the last stretch #picnictree
9. Arriving at my friends for …. a Bath (bliss and much missed) and a lovely supper and birthday cake cooked by friend’s son, T, who was home from Newcastle for the weekend, and then a lift back home.

I was thinking of all sorts, and nothing, as I went along my way, but this came to mind…

From Wordsworth’s ‘The Naming of Places’ …

… Up the brook
I roam’d in the confusion of my heart,
Alive to all things and forgetting all.
At length I to a sudden turning came
In this continuous glen, where down a rock
The stream, so ardent in its course before,
Sent forth such sallies of glad sound, that all
Which I till then had heard, appear’d the voice
Of common pleasure: beast and bird, the lamb,
The Shepherd’s dog, the linnet and the thrush
Vied with this waterfall, and made a song
Which, while I listen’d, seem’d like the wild growth
Or like some natural produce of the air
That could not cease to be. Green leaves were here,
But ’twas the foliage of the rocks, the birch,
The yew, the holly, and the bright green thorn,
With hanging islands of resplendent furze:
And on a summit, distant a short space,
By any who should look beyond the dell,
A single mountain Cottage might be seen.
I gaz’d and gaz’d, and to myself I said,
“Our thoughts at least are ours; and this wild nook,
My EMMA, I will dedicate to thee.”
–Soon did the spot become my other home,
My dwelling, and my out-of-doors abode.
And, of the Shepherds who have seen me there,
To whom I sometimes in our idle talk
Have told this fancy, two or three, perhaps,
Years after we are gone and in our graves,
When they have cause to speak of this wild place,
May call it by the name of EMMA’S DELL.