Tag Archives: East Anglia

Stepping Out

Since the 22nd December 2014 I have walked over 200,000 steps, at an average of 6,000 steps per day. That’s approximately 91 miles based on my stride length. How do I know this? Because I have an app. Like most things these days anything that can be measured has an app. And now I am addicted to trying to keep my average up and reach 10,000 steps (about 5 miles) a day – which is the “magic” figure that the experts say we should walk –  lest we become sedentary creatures and allow all manner of illnesses to take their hold for lack of exercise. That’s probably pretty sound advice!

Until recently, I have had a real struggle with achieving a balance with exercise and general wellbeing. For years as a young man I was an exceptionally fit athlete, running at county level, competing for selection in the all England youth athletics team, and generally able to excel in just about any sport I chose. Now in my 50’s I just cannot attain the level of fitness that my ego would like me to – I can’t be as fit as I was when I was 22! But that has not stopped me trying. I have pushed myself hard at the gym, but each time I come home exhausted and therefore not feeling the full benefits of the exercise.

It was my partner Caroline who, knowing what motivates me, finally persuaded me to try something different. Walking. She has been doing this for longer than me and introduced me to the app, also persuading me to join her for a walk in the grounds of one of our local National Trust properties (Anglesey Abbey for those of you who know Cambridgeshire). We covered more than 10,000 steps that day, and it has become a regular weekend walk.

Coincidentally our good friend and fellow blogger Elizabeth Marro (Betsy), wrote a piece about her own walking ambitions and her intent to walk 15 miles a week – you can read that blog here – http://elizabethmarroblog.com/category/walking-dispatches-from-the-journey/. Betsy is an inspiring writer, and her article wriggled it’s way into my psyche, and spoke to me about just how good walking can be for one’s soul, she writes “When I walk, I will not listen to music or talk on the telephone. I will look, feel, think, seek encounters. I will smile at strangers. I will open myself up to possibility. I will take one step at a time and maybe, at some point, it will become clear to me why I am walking and where I am going.”

Caroline has continued to encourage me to walk – though now I have something to aim for in terms of average steps I don’t need  so much persuasion (reminding me that I am goal oriented!). But walking does more than get a few steps or miles under ones belt just to be able to say “I reached my numerical goal”. Walking takes you out. It takes you into the outdoors, and it takes you out of yourself. I am fortunate enough to both work from home and live in an area with easy access to country walks. I don’t even have to get in a car and drive a few miles to a ‘walking spot’; where we live we have splendid rural isolation as well as being able to choose routes frequented by others if we don’t want to remain entirely solitary. Although I have to admit that often it is the solitary nature of a walk in the countryside that is most appealing. Unencumbered with having to make conversation you are free to look and listen to the world around you –  the variety of what you can experience is surprising.

My local walk: Fields stretch to the horizon

My local walk: Fields stretch to the horizon

One day this week I set off on a lunchtime walk under fairly gloomy and wintry conditions. I walked 2 or 3 miles with nothing more spectacular to see other than a few ploughed fields stretching across the flat lands of the fens to a razor-sharp horizon in the distance. But half way round my 5 mile circuit I was in for a surprise. And as I turned a corner the dark clouds above parted just a little – enough for the pale sunlight to shine through. So narrow was this cloudy aperture that it looked as though a spotlight was shining from the sky. As the clouds moved the ‘spotlight’ appeared to move, shining on the magnificent cathedral in the distance. It illuminated the stone so brightly that the ancient building stood out in sharp relief on the Isle of Ely. Dancing over newly ploughed fields and copses of trees the shaft of light then briefly seemed to follow a flock of wood pigeons, or maybe they followed it, before finally fading back to grey. It was almost as if this ethereal illumination had been just for me, no-one else was around to see it.

The view of the distant Cathedral from a country lane in the village just after the ‘spotlight’ had passed

A route revisited is never exactly the same. Yesterday Caroline and I returned to Anglesey Abbey, the ground was crisp with frost and a dusting of snow. The snowdrops are now bursting through the earthy undergrowth, whole swathes of them give the woodland areas an appearance of a white polka dot carpet. The silver birches, planted to create a stunning visual display, reach for the sky like slender brushes painting white clouds on a blue canvas. 10,000 steps went by very quickly and enjoyably. Through the simple act of walking and being outdoors, I may well have found the solution to my need for exercise at a level that suits me. Thanks Caroline and Betsy of encouraging me to step out!

The slender silver birch trees at Anglesey Abbey seem to touch the sky

The slender silver birch trees at Anglesey Abbey seem to touch the sky

Anglesey Abbey: Snowdrops are appearing

Anglesey Abbey: Snowdrops are appearing

Anglesey Abbey: Polka dot snowdrop carpet

Anglesey Abbey: Polka dot snowdrop carpet

Looking Up at Big Skies

Big skies are a feature of living in the Fens – the flatlands of East Anglia. For those of you not familiar with the geography of East Anglia it’s that bit of England that juts out into the North Sea from the east coast (see illustration below). The skies are big – or appear big – due to the fact that the land in the fens mostly lies below sea level and is incredibly flat – there are no hills or mountains here to obstruct the view, and the countryside is gloriously free of tall buildings.

 

East Anglia - home of the Fens

East Anglia – home of the Fens

 

Sky gazing out here can make you feel incredibly small and insignificant. The sheer vastness of what you are looking up at is hard to comprehend, as is the way in which the same sky can change in appearance in an instant. During the summer the fen skies are at their best with stunning sunrises and sunsets, amazing dawn and dusk cloud formations, brilliant sunshine burning clouds away to azure blue skies in the heat of mid day, and the cloud free sight of a million stars at night – The Plough and Big Dipper easily identifiable.

A winter sunset in the Fens

A winter sunset in the Fens

It is a privilege to live here and to experience these vistas so frequently. The winter months bring about a stark transformation to the landscape and sky scape. November is the darkest and greyest month in the fens, ploughed black soil fields merge with dense grey clouds delivering their pay loads of opaque sheets of rain. Morning and evening mists complete the totality of greyness as, shroud like, it envelopes everything and everyone. Yet there are still moments when the sun breaks through, surprises you with a deep orange sunset as it sinks early into the low clouds on the horizon (see above). The shafts of sunlight seem to illuminate the clouds from within and without – at moments like these I almost feel that God is touching the sky. In the late winter and early spring the clouds start to break a little, and the sun dances with the rain showers to provide us with frequent rainbow delights which are so clear you are almost compelled to reach for that mythical pot of gold.

Cirrostratus clouds high above the fen on a summers day

Cirrostratus clouds high above the fen on a summer’s day

Cirrocumlus clouds in the summer evening fen sky

Cirrocumlus clouds in the summer evening fen sky

When we run about our busy lives under these amazing skies it is easy to forget the true wonder of this dazzlingly diverse creation. It is easy to get lost in the day-to-day and forget to look up from our desks, from our trudge to the office, from our weary seat on the train. I have been lucky enough to travel the world and see the sky from many different parts of the globe, it is a constant source of wonder and delight that the same sky can be so different; from the deep blues created between Ocean and sky in the Caribbean, to the dark stillness pin pricked by night stars in the Nordics; from the stunning sunrises of the Florida Coast as the pelicans fly past in formation to the surfers paradise sunsets of Pacific and Mission beaches in San Diego; from the top of Mont Royale in Montreal – the summer sky like a blue canvas backdrop to the city scape far below, to the sky scraping heights of New York City, with the sun bouncing off the Chrysler building and the blue sky reflected like a lake in high-rise windows. Over the years I have trained myself to look up wherever I go, so much so that it is now second nature – I’m afraid I might miss another wondrous sky display.

Pelicans skim the ocean as the sun rises turns the sky red and the sea orange

Pelicans skim the ocean as the sun rises turns the sky red and the sea orange

Tower 21 at Sunset, Mission Beach, San Diego.

Tower 21 at Sunset, Mission Beach, San Diego.

You’ve guessed by now of course that this piece of prose is merely an excuse to publish some of my own photographs taken in some of my favourite places. I’m addicted to sky pictures, particularly sunsets and sunrises. Wherever I visit  it’s not unusual for me to check the sunrise times and be awake and ready at the best vantage point a good thirty minutes before the sun appears. I similarly make an appointment with the sunset.

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. Most of all I encourage you to always look up, and view the sky with a renewed wonder each time.

Eiffel Tower against a blue and white spring sky

Eiffel Tower against a blue and white spring sky