Reasons for Reasons
I was ‘raised’ – to use a phrase from our American friends – in south Lakeland and it has always remained home. Even though I left to study when I was 18 and didn’t return untill September 2010. A lot of years.
During those interim years I have had a great life, travelled and met some wonderful people and also have a managed to bring up my son fairly successfully. So, it although it was sort of ‘on the plan’, my move back North was not without trepidation.
As part of my ‘self affirmation’ that I had made the right decision I started a Facebook album ‘Reasons To Move North’. This has had wonderful comments from my friends but I never had the courage to make it public. Then recently I went on a Travel Writing Course with Zoe ,and much to my delight and surprise received more affirmation from positive comments on my travel writing. Something else which has always remained strictly within closed leaves.
A mindful review of my first year here followed and I realised that I had had an amazing twelve months. Yes, I have travelled away, but I have also done more here in the North West than I would have previously thought possible. And I have had so many visitors! People like it here! I have become a guide for friends and acquaintances who then spread the word about how wonderful the Lake District is. This led to my providing itineraries for weekends or longer visits. Some I accompanied, others I simply provided a ‘bespoke’ itinerary, with or with accommodation booked.
So, now it’s time to go Global!
And now I have built my own blog I have used my technical, from a previous life in IT, to build one for the Howgill Harriers. If you would like one put together then please contact me for a quote.
Familiar
Everyone was put off by the weather and so a trip up and over the Coledlale Horseshoe was sensibly cancelled. High winds, blustery showers and severe windchill. On the high ground. But stay a bit lower and it’s a different world. Almost. Winds which push would have pushed me off the ridges still rattled in the tops of the trees and occasionally peppered me with hail. It certainly wasn’t as mild as recent weeks. I’d not walk over Claife Heights for years. At one time it was a favourite family walk. Walked first in my own childhood, with my...
read moreFive Lessons Learned
From my time in Vietnam http://www.pinkpangea.com/2016/01/five-lessons-saigon-vietnam/ Posted by Reasonstogonorth.com on Monday, 4 January 2016
read moreTwixtmas
Between Christmas and New Year. Twixtmas. Well, that’s supposed to be the new vernacular. Not sure. It sounds more like a chocolate derivative. But who am I to judge. After all it’s given me a blog post title. Two weeks work free and I haven’t managed to get up a mountain. Between the weather and other commitments the hills have eluded me. Not to say I have not managed to get out, it’s just been low and local, with my camera around my neck as usual. On Christmas Eve storm clouds worried everyone. There was no room for any more water...
read moreImages of Saigon
I use Blurb to make photo books. It is always difficult to decide which to include and which to leave out. Saigon was so very photogenic. Some very personal shots of my time in and around the city.
read moreWet and Watery Weather
Floods have dominated many lives in Cumbria and the North West recently. Cumbria is OPEN, please come and spend your money to help those who have been hit in business and home. But there is no doubt it has a been a very wet year. I missed last winter due to my stint teaching in Asia. I trawled the internet longingly looking at snowy pictures of clear blue days and wonderful hiking in the hills. Even when I returned I had high expectations of a fabulous spring followed by lazy summer days. Returning in May had to be the right time to come...
read moreTarns and Waterfalls
This week will be remembered for the weather. Even on the southern edge of Cumbria my village was cut off by flooding. Houses no where near rivers or streams were filled with water – I was lucky. My house is on a small hill and I didn’t even get a power cut. Eight days later and the floods have gone. Yesterday the rain fell again. A torrent all day in the south of the county. In the north it was snow and today was the first time I ventured out. To see my home county which is still open visitors. My small efforts in supporting it...
read moreMontmartre and Le Marais
Breakfast in Montmartre. It was I remembered. Though my paper blog from my 19th year also reminds me it was summer with pictures of t-shirted youth sat on steps now filled with tourists muffled in layers But artists joked and jostled in the square. Colour splashed canvases depicting Paris in pictures. .. and soldiers a stark reminder of the recent heinous distruction. Wind whipped around Scare Coeur with seemingly endless Paris hinterland as tourists took selfies unflustered by the sweep of machine guns. Down through the undulating streets of...
read moreParis St Germain
Staying in the left bank Latin Quarter another easy morning stroll to St Germain, where J P Sartre and Samuel Beckett once lingered. Now more a place of original retail than philosophical genius. Where else but Paris would see a shop selling solely éclairs or meringues tins of fish or sardines on a hat There is still a little of the traditional bric a brac filled streets to linger in Out of the colourful cacophony of cafes and food, in Strasbourg gardens. A place of rest and poise. And the Eglise Saint-Sulpice Song drifted down the...
read moreGardens and Galleries
Never again will I look at Degas ballerinas eyes and imagine innocence. Learning that for the less successful the corps de ballet was a cover for the sex industry of the time. Impressionist paintings of ladies turning an ankle, of dancers. Not just the ribald or bar maids of the Folies-Berger but the delicate young. All explained and examined in Splendour and Misery. Pictures of Prostitution. Currently at Musée d’Orsay. A morning stroll through the Latin Quarter, central Paris is eminently walkable. Through the Louvre (no time...
read moreFour Days in Paris
Paris planned before the attacks. I heard the news driving up the M6 early the morning following. Shocked. There but by the grace of whatever faith you subscribe to. Two weeks later and it could have been I. Could have been anyone of us. May be it was quiet. It felt quiet but then I have not been to Paris in November, in fact its over 25 years since I’ve been to Paris at all. With the intensity of an ugly sister trying to fit into a glass slipper I filled four days with sights, galleries, food, wine, pavement sore feet and fun. My...
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