Wednesday December 27th

On By Mick CanningIn environment, natural world, seasons, walking, wildlife

It is windy this morning and the forecast is for rain and high winds later in the day. Consequently, I go out for a walk straight after breakfast, heading for the woods beside the common where I know I will be sheltered from the worst of it, should the winds get up soon. Above, the clouds are thick and dark and what light does make it through the mirk is thin and silvery, glittering coldly on leaves and puddles, the latter wrinkled with tiny wavelets scurrying in bursts across their surfaces.

A couple of rooks are calling irritably overhead, buffeted by the breeze, as I reach the edge of the wood. A few paces in, I pass along the edge of a shallow, long-disused sandstone quarry, its banks perforated with badger holes, and with other entrances deeper into the woods. The whole of the sett appears to occupy upwards of a fifth of an acre, although there may well be entrances I have not yet found.

Moving on, I find I am walking to the rhythm of a tune in my head, something that happens to me frequently. This time, it is a track from an album by Stick in the Wheel, a kind of punk-folk group, the track being the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. Stick in the Wheel are a group I have only recently discovered, and the only album I have of theirs (so far!) gets played rather a lot. This particular tune has a very pronounced beat and I wonder, as I often do, whether the tune has come into my head as the beat matches my pace, or whether I have unconsciously altered my pace to fit the tune.

I also decide it doesn’t matter which it is.

It is still early enough in the day for there to be very few other people about. In about an hour’s time the air will be filled with barking and shouting as the regular dog walkers invade, but for now I have the place almost to myself.

I have just begun to re-read Robert MacFarlane’s The Old Ways, and in this he tells us that at the time of writing (2012) he reckoned he had walked perhaps 7,000 or 8,000 miles along footpaths in his lifetime. Does this mean each mile is a unique mile, in that he means he has walked this distance all along different routes, or does it include the day to day walks along local routes, routes such as the one I repeat day after day? He doesn’t make that clear, and I would guess it includes all repetitions. He then goes on to quote De Quincy saying that Wordsworth walked a total of 175,000 – 180,000 miles in his lifetime (although how did he know?), which would clearly include his repeated local walks, if true. I wonder how many I have done and make a vague stab at guessing a figure. At various times I have worked out I tend to walk an average of 20 miles a week, allowing for good and bad periods of walking, of which probably one half would be on footpaths. There were times when I did much less, and times when I did much more, but it seems a reasonable estimate. That would give me a figure of between 25,000 and 27,000 miles in my adult life so far, which is probably wildly out but is quite similar to Robert Macfarlane’s.

I’ve no idea what to conclude from that.

But I know I would probably walk quite a bit further if I didn’t tend to stop so frequently just to stand and stare at my surroundings. I do it often enough to sometimes irritate those I walk with, although they’re usually kind enough to say nothing about it. But there are also those who just get their heads down and walk, walk, walk, seemingly on some mission to cover as many miles as possible in the shortest possible time, barely able to glance around them as they go. What is that about, unless it’s some sort of charity event and they’re raising money by the mile? Where is the pleasure?

The Welsh poet W H Davies wrote ‘What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?’

What indeed?

I’ve been doing it quite a lot again this morning. It seems so important. Surely everyone must do it to a degree?

43 thoughts on “Wednesday December 27th”

    2. Loved your walk, through the wind and the rain, the woods, quarries and badger holes and all that you stared at along the way. W.H Davies’ poem, has always been a favourite, so it immediately came to mind as i was reading and then came on your thoughts about it, too. Walking is so much more than keeping track of the miles clocked. Such a lovely post. Keep walking!

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        1. Walkers usually prefer walking early morning or evening, around Rabindra Sarobar Lakes, in the public parks or on the Maidan and its adjacent areas. Im a very erratic walker myself and usually prefer to walk in club greens.

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            1. It’s one of the prettiest spots in the heart of the city. Also has parks and two very active rowing club’s! next to it and an island with an ancient mosque on it and a hanging bridge leading to it. I also forgot to mention Victoria Memorial, on the list of favourite places for early morning walkers. Quite a few actually and these are only in south Calcutta. The other parts in the north of the city, New Town, Salt Lake, Sector Five have their own places for walking too.

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  4. You had a lovely walk and thoughts, Mick! Standing and staring is the better part of your walk, and a better part of life. I do that a lot on my walks. I stand, stare, and capture the scenes with my phone, or write down my thoughts on my phone. I’ve never thought of calculating the miles I’ve walked. I walked half a mile each way to my elementary school and walked a lot when I lived in Hong Kong. I miss walking that much.

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  5. I stop to study interesting things encountered on a walk, sometimes just to soak in the atmosphere of a place, or to listen to the sounds of running water. It probably looks like I’m just vacantly staring, maybe I should get a cardboard sign “Not Gawping I’m Peacefully Contemplating Nature So Buzz Off,” something philosophical like that.

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    1. That sounds a great way to get immersed in your surroundings. I sometimes set out deliberately to see what fungi I can find, or simply curiously shaped trees and branches or somesuch, and it means a very slow walk.

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    1. I would guess you could boast a count to rival Wordsworth, John, judging by your posts.

      On another note, I picked up three more Bob Copper books recently, to go with his book about his walk following Belloc in Sussex. What splendid accounts of country life!

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      1. John Bainbridge's avatar John Bainbridge

        Used to average a lot more than a thousand odd. Got clobbered this year, first with diplopia and then covid. Much restricted too by a slump in book sales, which stopped is going further afield. Yes, Bob Copper was grand – we often play the original Copper family CDs on car journeys,

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  8. As Dog and I age we stop and stare/sniff a lot. I tend to think we’ve walked four miles in our heads even if it’s only two on the ground. Your descriptions are very evocative too. Now to calculate my current mileage….

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  9. Thinking about it, I’d say I walk to explore rather than to get from point A to point B, or calculate distance, or any of that. I think more in terms of time than distance or speed, and of course that expresses itself in an odd little phenomenon. I can go out with my camera and spend six hours in the woods. Then, it begins to get dark, and I feel the need to get back to the car. Reversing myself, I find my six hour meander reduced to fifteen minutes. Amazing, how much there is to see!

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  10. You charmed me with this musing, from the appearance of the song in your head to the questions about how far you’ve walked. But most important is the end, where you quote that sweet saying and wonder about the people who walk as if on a mission, never stopping to stare. I’m with you! But you would guess that. 🙂

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  11. Interesting read. “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?’” The modern information we are bombarded with says, act now, do now, don’t waste your time. Your time on Earth is limited. Sometimes, I feel it is fuelled by consumerism who wants you to spend all your resources on their product.

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    1. I think that’s exactly what it is, Arv. Get out there, buy, consume, throw away, repeat. If you’re not working, you should be out spending, or watching a film, or in a fast food joint, or…anything, except taking time to think.

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  12. A beautiful reflective post, Mick and what a treat to see such a large badger sett. I’ve only seen badger once and astonished how big they are in real life – very impressive. I love the quote and taking pauses during walks is so important, how sad to chase around and miss so much along the way.

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