walking
-
You Need To Be Careful With The Tits
“Tits are quite difficult”. It is half four on a freezing April morning, and a softly-spoken man is teaching us to listen for the birds. As the light threatens, a group of mainly retired folk are standing in the woods at RSPB Arne, a place very well known to nature types. We’re shown the clearing… Read more
-
Scarbados: a day trip to Scarborough
The initial plan was to walk to Whitby, until I remembered it’s 20-odd miles and the cats would kill me. So I settled for a day of bimbling around town, looking at buildings and gazing at the sea. Scarborough was the original seaside town, after a 17th century resident discovered the scam of claiming the… Read more
-
Heading up the Ouse
Greetings from York, where I am cat sitting Maisie and Poppy, old friends both, near what once was York City’s football ground, Bootham Crescent. (Very cheap looking houses are currently being built on what was once the pitch; I give them twenty years.) I’m not able to do much in the way of exercise at… Read more
-
Brighton Folk Choir at Oldland Windmill; walking back via Ditchling and the South Downs
Our second Bank Holiday gig in a row: this time at a 300 year old windmill, near Hassocks, a village that arrived 150 years later with the railway. The mill is in full working order, as I discovered when I saw flour from it for sale in the local Budgens nee the station. From here… Read more
-
Walking in the Only Unknown Direction
A map offers possibilities but also limitations. When I’ve lived in a town, city or suburb for a certain amount of time, each direction lies heavy with familiarity. Here in Brighton, South is to the sea; North, to the Downs. West to Hove and, eventually, America. On down, tired days, I everything in my mind… Read more
-
Furious man in local newspaper
I’ve finally achieved my lifelong goal of looking angry in the local newspaper. Unfortunately I didn’t get to pose either with my armed folded or pointing at the thing that annoyed me, but perhaps that’s something to achieve before I’m fifty. I’m pretty happy with how I have been quoted, though it’s perhaps a shame… Read more
-
Crossing the Streams
In the 1984 docu-drama Ghostbusters, we were warned that crossing the streams could lead to catastrophe. The historic record shows things worked out fine in the end. In that spirit*, I’m sharing a couple of posts from instagram. I am still doing some videos about bad cycling and walking infrastructure, even though things are no… Read more
-
Spooky Infrastructure Month
I’ve decided to do some short videos of the paucity of walking and cycling infrastructure in this place we insist on calling England. Some of the cycle lanes I share will definitely be haunted. This is a project that will largely live on instagram but to remind myself that this is something I’m doing, here… Read more
-
Wimpy #4: Worthing
A hiatus! A palpable hiatus! It has been ten months since my last Wimpy visit, before Lockdown III came along and made burger restaurant-based geographical sagas tricky. It’s been ages since the government’s specific ban on travelling up and down the country reviewing Wimpys was lifted, but I’ve been busy running comedy nights, walking dogs… Read more
-
North Downs Way and the Pilgrims Way, Farnham to Guildford
Frazzled after a gig, I took myself off for a walk. Many years ago, I attempted to walk the full North Downs way with a now ex-friend. But for reasons I no longer recall, we started at Guildford, rather than the actual start point of Farnham. And so, a decade later, but still feeling early… Read more
jamesofwalsh 