Walking Commentary
Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023
I’ve gone down another rabbit hole with Bill Bryson. I’ve been along for the ride with him several times as he made ‘notes’ from small islands and big continents. And his idea of a history of nearly everything was great fun. His idea for The Body as A Guide for Occupants has been as enjoyable and informative a read as any of his books.
Another experimental scan of leaf decay. This time I used some fallen Liquid Amber leaves that we found blowing around in the Windy Ridge Nursery. Scanned once, I left them on the scanner for 24 hours and scanned them once again.
I’m failing better now.
It’s the middle(ish) of November and so it’s Movember again. Male sports is once again a showcase for the annual 70’s pornstar moustache revival. I used to do Movember fund raising when I had the enthusiasm that you get after you or someone close has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Now I prefer to publicise the risks of cancer. I prefer to encourage men to have an annual screening specifically for prostate cancer.
I heard today that English goalkeeping legend Ray Clemence has died. Now, I’m not a big football fan despite growing up with compulsive enthusiasms for the top English leagues. While I’ve always preferred rugby, years in America taught me that any sport can catch your imagination and act as a gateway to a new culture. I learned that baseball is more pointless than cricket, that American Football is seriously bad for your health and that to watch basketball, is to see how evolution works, but more slowly.
Today is a day for us to recall that there are myriad writers incarcerated in many intolerant countries. Perhaps more significantly, The Day of The Imprisoned Writer is also a commemoration of the writers killed since the previous year’s Day of The Imprisoned Writer.
I’m not sure why a trawler and a lighthouse on the horizon made me think of an allotment. But my mind drifted to sustainable food production while we were enjoying a sunrise walk along Dun Laoghaire pier this morning. The allotment in question was somewhere in Kent. I only remember it because of the conversation about North of England trophy fishing I had with a man who was planting potatoes in his well tended section. We talked about other things too. Unusual things like farming and wineries near Otago. And The Knowledge, the legendary taxi driver test in London.
