hello! Sorry to disappear there: sometimes a migraine can really slay me, and that’s definitely been the case with this one. As well as feeling utterly exhausted, I’ve really needed to rest my eyes, so I have spent most of this past week away from the computer screen. It is funny how not sitting at a desk can seem like a holiday, but in an odd way that’s how the past few days have felt to me, sitting in shed 1 with my books and my knitting.
In the small space of shed 1 over the past week, my physical horizons have contracted even further, and I found myself thinking more generally about the shared experience of living within a dramatically reduced radius during lockdown.
Single weekly shopping trip aside, Tom and I have not used the car, and have only walked or run within a radius of 3 miles (me) or 5 miles (Tom) from our front door. Unlike some notable others, we’ve not felt the need to go for long drives to test our eyesight. . .
We know we are very fortunate where we live, especially because our location gives us so many options for daily pottering on foot. Walking for an hour from our front door, we encounter so many different species of birds and animals (one day I might try to list them all) and enjoy a great variety of landscapes: from ancient woodland to modern forestry, from well-worn footpaths to bare hillside, from the lush, meandering view east down the Blane Valley to the spectacular westward scenes across the Highlands and the Trossachs.
Over the seven years that we’ve lived here, Tom and I have developed our own names for the different routes we take on foot from our front door. It occurred to me today how this shared nomenclature constitutes an entirely unofficial – but for us, completely legible – map of our surrounding landscape. For example, if Tom says to me that he’s off out for a run with the dogs “the back way up the Whangie” I can picture him in space and time for the next hour or two, while my mentioning “the lightning tree” or “the twisted hawthorn” would allow Tom to differentiate between two of my shorter and longer walks.
I asked Tom to draw me a map of some of our routine routes from our front door, with their names. Some routes are versions of others (“to the rock and back” for example, is a curtailed version of “to the Beech Tree and back”) while other routes are defined by a particular destination “to the pigs”; “to the lightning tree” etc). Tom overlaid our routes over an OS map, and though accuracy was not the priority here, each radial line is about 1km.
I like Tom’s map, as a record of our shared local nomenclature, and the routine radius of our feet and bodies over the past few lockdown months, a time which I think I’m going to look back on in retrospect as a period of strange resourcefulness, expansive, creative thought, and a renewed belief in the importance of making good things that one believes in, perhaps especially against the context of the weird horror of the wider world. So somehow Tom’s map also makes me think about what my experience of disability has also taught me: that physical limitation does not mean generally limited horizons.
I can sympathize about migraines because I have them Soo bad they’ve caused brain damage , you can see the damaged spots on x rays. Sounds like you are doing what you should . Really enjoyed your post on feathers , love those photos – thinking of printing them for wall art , if that’s okay. Sending kind thoughts and prayers your way.
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Wow. So nice pic
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So pleased you are feeling better you have been missed.
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Like so many here my partner and I are walking everyday around ovals and sometimes down to a nearby lake. We have bike /person paths within lightly tree-ed areas. Our fascination is now being directed to the local birds. There is a pretty standard selection, but we now notice the fluctuations in large flocks to none even between one day and another. I have now made up a little list to check what we see as we go. And yes all our walks have names too. Waving from Australia! Stay safe everyone.
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I love this. Our family does the same thing – I feel that it reflects an important intimacy with the landscapes where we walk. Each footfall engages in a palimpsest of experiences with the landscape – not only the places we go to, but the things that have happened along the way (the rattlesnake rock springs to mind!). In that way, the landscape becomes a place of memory encoding. There’s a neat mutuality there, I think.
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Not sure how else to message Tom – my photo arrived two minutes ago and it’s wonderful – all those luminous sea greens and greys. Thank you (and for the lovely balls of wool, all neat and cosy in their bag).
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My longest walk now (alas, it was my shortest walk a mere six years ago….) is to The Hawthorn Tree. We have a lot of them about the place, but only this one is dignified with a definite article!
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As someone who lives only a couple of km from you and Tom, and runs and cycles in the same area, it’s amazing to me how evocative your route names are (before I even saw the map). I could picture exactly where you meant as it’s exactly how I describe some of my local routes!
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From a fellow migraine suffer. Sorry to hear you get migraine, it can be so debilitating. Have tried taking soluble aspirin the minute feel symptoms? I didn’t think of it until a friend , who also suffers from migraine told me that’s what her doctor suggested. It works for me and gets rid of the pins and needles, speech problems, tunnel vision and flashing lights. I still get a milder form of the headache and need to sleep but it’s so much better!
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Those pictures married to your words are lovely to read. We have similar situation here in Wales where we are lucky to be able to strike out for a walk around the lanes and woodlands without the need of a car. The map is a piece of art. You should frame it and hang it on the wall. Last night I pulled together a selection of photos from our walks and set them to music as a reminder of these very strange times we have lived through these past few months. I hope you both stay well and safe.
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So glad you are feeling better. Our little concentric worlds are so healing for us, especially in times like these.
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So glad you are feeling better and that you find such comfort in your walks. My husband and I have walked together for forty years. We live at the base of Washington Park, in a Portland, Oregon. We have been walking up through the forest and have watched the most beautiful spring blooms of Rhodies, Camelias, jasmine and other incredible springtime plants. Our international rose garden is part of this beloved walk and they are now in full bloom. Over 10,000 varieties of roses. In this period of lockdown we cherish these walks together and experience nature and all of its beauty.
Stay well,
Mary
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Your description of Washington Park has made me add it to the list of places I would like to go! Somewhere my Husband and I would both like!
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This is a really interesting way of looking at landscape, defined by time and ability and mode of transport rather than by distance itself. And for most of history, that’s the way that humans viewed landscape. Early maps do it too – they are far less defined by any sense of relative distance than by what’s important and how you get there.
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Ah, you’ve brought back happy memories, from when I lived not too far East of where you are. Some of those walks were my favourites too, others I didn’t try.
Glad to see you back, I was wondering whether you were OK.
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Oops, I’ve managed to comment twice.
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Kate, I am so glad that you took the break that your migraine required… We will always be here when you are able to return… What a gorgeous and wonderfully thoughtful post…
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You have made me think more deeply of the nomenclature‘s my husband and I have created to describe our walks from our home over the years. They have become such ‘normal’ descriptions to us that even our children and now grandchildren know which walk, and the length of time it will take, that we are going to go on. Thank you for sharing your “nomenclature’s” and beautiful photos.
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Great tree pic. Thanks.
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Beautiful photos and thoughtful commentary.
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Love seeing more of the landscape where you live. Photos are gorgeous! What is that beautiful flower– wish I could grow it in my citified yard. Stay well!
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What a beautiful and meaningful thing. I’m sitting in the rain today with a newly started strodie sleeve (knitted from some odds and sods of birkin and lochan). I look forward to the rest of the wool arriving this week alongside Tom’s photograph which I treated myself to. I shall look it at think of a shore walk with a strodie jumper. Thanks to you both.
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So pleased you are feeling better. You were missed.
Must be the week for migraines, apart from dog walks i have managed very little this week until yesterday. Being in the fresh air helps i find if the tablets haven’t.
I love the ‘map’ of walks.
I am reading Rewilding by Isabelle Tree and it is making me see and read the countryside differently and therefore name areas i walk through more appropriately.
Thank you for your blogs they are wonderful.
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Nice that you are back! I have maps in my heid for my 3 favourite walks. Just me and the furry dugs and the occasional deer.
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So glad you’re on the other side. You have been missed.
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So glad that you have managed to rest and are feeling better. Your wonderful posts have been missed. I love the idea of radius. We too are very lucky as we live in a coastal village and only go out in the car for the weekly shop. I guess part of our radius would be the Irish Sea but even discounting that, we are spoilt for choice in our immediate area. Cliffs, beaches, woods, glens and the first part of the Southern Upland Way. Wishing you happy walking within your radius.
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Yes! I too am fortunate to live in a place where my limitations now seem like blessings. Being limited to a small area means discovering how deep the beauty goes, and it goes all the way down. I’m glad to see your post, but I also know that the daily posts can’t go on forever, and don’t have to. Thank you for all the days you’ve given us something lovely to wake up to.
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Love this! Did Tom use a mapping software for this, or is it hand-drawn, please?
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I was very aware of your absence the past several days and was hoping for your good health!
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Glad you are feeling better. I used to suffer from migraines (fortunately not had one for many years) so I can sympathise. I have a ‘railway’ path too,but it’s usually very busy and trying to get out of the way whilst on a horse is difficult in the narrow bits, so i’ve ben mostly riding in the sand school where I keep him. The fields close by where i walk the dog are shrinking rapidly with the building of yet more housing – which is at a standstill currently of course, but will ultimately mean more ‘urban’ walking on the lead sadly,not to mention the loss of habitat for the wild creatures.
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I love this map! Having a shared nomenclature is a kind of magic, isn’t it?
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Be well!
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Quel beau texte et comme il me parle… Ici aussi le confinement m’a étrangement permis plus de liberté… C’est fou ce que l’on peut faire dans un périmètre restreint.. Une autre vie
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Welcome back! I missed your posts and actually thought I may have accidentally unsubscribed 🙂
Sorry to hear you’ve not been well.
We also have our own ‘special’ names for walks. Anyone hearing us would wonder what / where we are referring to but we know 😉
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Glad you are feeling much better. You were missed. I love the map of your local walks. We, too, are lucky in where we live, able to walk without meeting anyone, and enjoying the hedgerows, birds, and wild animals around us, especially the hares.
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Love Tom’s map and your walk naming. My partner and I do the same thing for our neighbourhood walks, usually involving a different park as the destination. While living in a decidedly urban environment, I am blessed that Liverpool has so many lovely parks, all with their own character. They have been packed recently, so we have to choose our times carefully, very early in the morning or late at night or wait until it’s rainy/cold but it does provide some variety.
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I wish I had walks so beautiful. We have a park nearby, and also a disused railway line, known locally as the ‘Ralla’. But from both locations you can still see houses and hear traffic. My husband is a Scot, born in East Kilbride, Glasgow, and both of us would love to move up to Scotland. But both children are still at home, aged 27 and 25. They did actually move out, we had a lovely couple of quiet months, and then one came back home, followed shortly after by the other. So not sure when, or if, but it’s a nice dream. Glad you’re recovered x
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The “map” you present is like a poetic compass. I love it, and your linguist resourcefulness. I feel inspired to attempt something similar with my radii. And I think that you have drunk deep of the creativity that is sometimes – in my experience – associated with migraines, May you continue to rest and refresh well x
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Missed but so glad you’re feeling better. I enjoy your blog and its varied contributions as a more natural thought for the day 😍
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Weird horror captures the mood perfectly.
Love to hear of your layering of your experiences and adding to your surroundings.
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