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Where do ( did ) you walk ( locally ) in 2023?

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New Original Camino Gear Designed Especially with The Modern Peregrino In Mind!
Yesterday I walked 26 miles (42km) on the Angus Coastal Path on the East coast of Scotland. Dundee to Arbroath.

Our first stop was at 21km, for a beer and some nuts. Final stop in Arbroath for a beer and fish & chips in a seafront restaurant.

This was a distance walk in preparation for our Camino Portuguese from Lisbon next month.

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Dundee Law, Firth of Tay, Discovery, V& A museum in Dundee, Ann Cottage in Broughty Ferry, Broughty Castle, North Sea coast.

Last photo from a party dress shop window in Dundee
 
Yesterday I walked 26 miles (42km) on the Angus Coastal Path on the East coast of Scotland. Dundee to Arbroath.

Our first stop was at 21km, for a beer and some nuts. Final stop in Arbroath for a beer and fish & chips in a seafront restaurant.

This was a distance walk in preparation for our Camino Portuguese from Lisbon next month.
Sounds like a nice training walk in nice scenery! I remember Arbroath, although eons ago ;-)
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
9k. loop at Alt-Hoeselt with my small walkinggroup. One of them has a dog and he had the time of his life.
Very very muddy for some parts. See pic of trousers.
For the first 2k.we had rain but after that dry though grey.
Lourdescave and mistletoe.

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What does this sign mean?
 
What does this sign mean?

That you are leaving the city/ village borders. Most of the time meaning that when driving a car you can take more speed ( though not always...then this board will be followed with another board with speedlimits ).
Yes, we Belgians love to make it complicated.


If you are bored you can find the whole list here ;) .

 
This post is mostly for @VNwalking . I went for a short walk around the 2023 Pasifika Festival today

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and this year they had a Hawaiian section. I didn't stop long but took a photo of one of the food tents for you.

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You might have to zoom in to see the menu.

I am not walking far at the moment as I injured myself while helping my 97 year old uncle in his garden.

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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
A selection of Camino Jewellery
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
This post is mostly for @VNwalking .
Haha. Kalua pig, Spam musubi, even lomi ika!
Mahalo!

Wow, Doug, that knee looks spectacular, and not in a good way. Ouch! Hope it heals quickly and uneventfully.

(I've been enjoying your posts, but my walks have been boring, certainly not worth a photo.)
 
Just back from a week mostly out of cell and internet reach in the Moab, Utah, area. 2 days/nights at Needles Canyonlands, 2 nights at Arches, 1 night at Dead Horse State Park, and a night on the Colorado River each coming and going in Colorado. Cold at night. Rain one day at Arches, but lots of good short hikes.

Met 2 thru hikers on the Hayduke Trail (700 miles or 1120 km) from the northern part of Arches National Park through Bears Ears NM, Canyonlands, Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, all the way to Las Vegas. Their resupply had gone awry so we gave them a ride into town and back (50 miles) so they could be on their way again with food and fuel.

Beautiful landscapes. I hated to come back, but only 10 weeks to the next trip to Spain now and our next Camino and hospitalero gig.
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
I believe we stayed very close to the rugby stadium when we visited in January 2014. We went for a walk prior to one game and were surprised to see fans standing on the sidewalks outside the pubs having a pint (in the cold and rain) with children running around. So different from what we have here where the consumption of any kind of alcohol is very carefully regulated, relaxed a little bit in some sections of our parks only during the pandemic.
 
I believe we stayed very close to the rugby stadium when we visited in January 2014. We went for a walk prior to one game and were surprised to see fans standing on the sidewalks outside the pubs having a pint (in the cold and rain) with children running around. So different from what we have here where the consumption of any kind of alcohol is very carefully regulated, relaxed a little bit in some sections of our parks only during the pandemic.
I gather there was a great win yesterday, part of the Six Nations competition. I dare not imagine the scene! Let's just draw a veil over the drinking customs...
 
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Two days of hiking planned starting tomorrow with 24 km, and on Tuesday, 26 km. Backpack weighs 10 kg with one thermos bottle and an electrolyte mixture, sandwich, hard boiled eggs, salt and an apple.
Will take photos.
Curiosity: 10kg, with so few items? How many hardboiled eggs? (Actually, it is a great idea to carry those)
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Happy New Year! Looking forward to all your local walks 😎
As for me, today only a short walk to prepare a new waterhole on the ice ❄️❄️
I guess my current miniwalks are a bit boring for the forum as it is always close to the cabin.
Looks lovely! I do that sometimes, but not without spending an hour or so in the sauna before.
About local walks, I do quite a few now in Languedoc, France. There are plenty of nice walking tours from 8 up to around 20-21 km in lovely environments. But that's day tours, of course.
I plan to spend ten days on le Chemin de la Régordane, from Le-Puy-en-Velay to Saint Gilles close to Nîmes in France this year in May, with a tent. Then I want to do part of el Camino Norte, starting in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port after a week of working in the Pilgrim's Office in SJPdP end of August, and finishing around Llanes or Colunga. I think there somewhere is where my walking time finish and I have to go back home.
Happy to have information on the Régordane walk!
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
I was so happy to walk and hike yesterday on a small leg of the Camino Tolosana / Arles walking round trip from Isle-de-Noé to Montesquiou, both small villages in the French department of Gers. I met pilgrims who had hiked from Le Puy to Pamplona last year and who were planning to leave the area in September to go to Santiago. They were very talkative and imparted words of wisdom about « gîtes rurales » in France, suggested to take it easy and enjoy the walk, not make the Caminos a race to get anywhere quickly.
This trip will be an experience, for sure.1EBF5519-23FE-4B47-B7E3-61CCE1D84FB3.jpeg The entrance to Montesquiou7C392DDF-1A01-4F4F-B6C5-5EF30E69EA7F.jpeg inside the village29AB2B23-924C-4DCB-9715-8453A6FC77B8.jpeg A statue of Saint Jacques2E4F4948-7705-46F9-99DE-48AD8959F2B2.jpeg A place to stay for the night?D53815CA-792B-4DB6-84BD-3F1D60228EB1.jpeg The markers for the Camino de Compostelle6FB4FE75-C38F-445F-BE02-76BA14714F0E.jpeg How about staying the night here?
 
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For the moment, on Fridays I visit a friend on the other side of the river from where I live. I walk, take a local light rail train or a bus, walk....
Photos:
Today is Daffodil Day. Many volunteers give their time to fundraise for Cancer research. This cheerful lady makes her own outfits... how could you not donate? ( she was not collecting on the train, but I gave my donation to start her off).
Signs of spring, an information panel in the grounds of a place I know well,
and the pampas grass looking a bit the worse for wear, even in the sunshine!

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A selection of Camino Jewellery
Re-energizing walk last weekend in back woods of Eastern Ontario. My Camino training was starting to feel like a chore. It’s hard to get excited about walking the same old city routes and I was even sick of pod casts. This day spent tramping the woods and ponds with my favourite walking companions (my border collie nephews) was just wonderful! I felt so strong physically and mentally and the feeling has carried on back here in the city.
 

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Signs of spring, and an image of the lovely stained glass window behind the altar in St James's Church. The image allows a truer reflection of the window's beauty than my photos. There were many enquiring pilgrims all day, plus two other forum members, one on duty with me and the other on his way to the airport for a short camino.
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17kms walk yesterday with some steep hills that the picture does not do it justice. Sunny. Today more snow 😩

I was about 400m from home and an older gentleman was walking and stopped me and said « Camino de Santiago? » and I said yes I’m training. His eyes lit up and he became so animated and shared with me that he and his wife had done five different ones. Gave me some tips and told me to just enjoy and be free and in the moment. His Camino spirit was alive and well in his heart. We said goodbye with a « buen Camino ». How cool is that!

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-25°C (-13 F) today and sunny. Perfect weather :cool: to be out with the dogs. This walk is close to our permanent home (not the recently acquired settler's homestead which now serves as a cabin) and as you can see, even retired sled dogs like Umiak grow an ice beard in this weather ❄️ . In the woods near the house we prepare out walking paths with snowmobiles. Else it would be quite an expedition in the deep snow. The last two images show my arrival back home and had some outdoor coffee overlooking the small bay behind the house. Ice thickness here is around 60 cm just now – also the Lule river (first two images) is still frozen.
 

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17kms walk yesterday with some steep hills that the picture does not do it justice. Sunny. Today more snow 😩

I was about 400m from home and an older gentleman was walking and stopped me and said « Camino de Santiago? » and I said yes I’m training. His eyes lit up and he became so animated and shared with me that he and his wife had done five different ones. Gave me some tips and told me to just enjoy and be free and in the moment. His Camino spirit was alive and well in his heart. We said goodbye with a « buen Camino ». How cool is that!
Yes, sometimes the world is really small! I made friends with a Southern Swede on the Camino, who happened to be a colleague of the brother of one of my local friends in Northern Sweden. So funny when we found out.
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
New Original Camino Gear Designed Especially with The Modern Peregrino In Mind!
I just went on a short evening walk, to explore an area around the cabin where I have never been before.

This is in preparation for tomorrow, when I plan to go on a small expedition into the wild on skis – same direction.
Rumour has it there is a tiny log building somewhere behind the swamps to the North. If it is there, I happen to be the owner as it would be included when we bought the cabin. As I have never been there yet I really want to find it 🤣
I have no idea what state it could be in. I looked up satellite images but resolution is bad. There seems to be something in between the trees. Could be a large boulder, or actually a roof. Well I will see ... hopefully.
I will probably take a tent with me as I do not know if the place really exists and if it is in a state to sleep in.

But now for today's images: Same direction, but still on this side of the swamp and close to the lake and to the dead-end road leading here.
 

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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Yesterday after the pilgrim blessing in the Camino Information Centre, I took this photo, having taken time to read the prayers again...

On my walk this morning I missed catching the gaggle of swans that swooped along on my left. They made a right racket! Then later I wondered - as I often do - how on earth do the graffiti people manage their 'work'? No point wondering why.
Finally, a young lady was tinkling away on the piano at the railway station, half way mark on my walk.
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There are two places where I stop regularly, on my daily walks. One is the place where I am taking a photo from the exact same spot, each day. And, the other...
My walk follows a road that runs along the outer edge of an abandoned, open-cut mine. It's here that I like to pause and ponder.
Sunlight or clouds, wet with rain or dry from wind, the far face changes its attitude to suit the conditions. Earth's layers laid bare, the different colors of the soil exposed. Shifting shadows shape and reshape the face.
I think, as I see... it's easy to understand how the most beautiful aboriginal art is formed from the inspiration of this land.
The WALL.jpg

"What is life/ if full of care,
We have no time to stop and stare

W.H. Davies

I have built time into My Camino to do just that...
Four weeks and counting...
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Very light, comfortable and compressible poncho. Specially designed for protection against water for any activity.

Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

€60,-
Training is almost over.
The weight of my pack is now a familiar friend. The handles of my sticks have become so comfortable to my hands that I can tell with eyes closed which is left and which is right. The crunch of gravel beneath my boots is the back-beat rhythm to the melody of the birds' singing... the best music for walking.
As I paused to take a photo of my day's walk, I smile because I suddenly realize that, at that precise moment-
The road truly had risen up to meet me.
The wind was indeed at my back.
I felt the warmth of the sun on my face.
And, beside the road, the fields were green from the recent soft rain.
And, with my eyes closed, I could feel myself held in the palm of God's hand.

A fitting feel to my Easter morning.
Camino.jpg
Mi Dia de Camino- Tercero de Mayo.

Three weeks to fly and counting.

Buen Camino.
 
Training is almost over.
The weight of my pack is now a familiar friend. The handles of my sticks have become so comfortable to my hands that I can tell with eyes closed which is left and which is right. The crunch of gravel beneath my boots is the back-beat rhythm to the melody of the birds' singing... the best music for walking.
As I paused to take a photo of my day's walk, I smile because I suddenly realize that, at that precise moment-
The road truly had risen up to meet me.
The wind was indeed at my back.
I felt the warmth of the sun on my face.
And, beside the road, the fields were green from the recent soft rain.
And, with my eyes closed, I could feel myself held in the palm of God's hand.

A fitting feel to my Easter morning.
View attachment 144485
Mi Dia de Camino- Tercero de Mayo.

Three weeks to fly and counting.

Buen Camino.
Beautiful photo. Buen Camino.
 
Very light, comfortable and compressible poncho. Specially designed for protection against water for any activity.

Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

€60,-
Happy Easter and sorry for the delay with my ski expedition into pathless lands ... but now it is done 😎
I made it into the area where our tiny cabin was supposed to be and after some zig-zagging I finally found it in the evening! The whole thing was more exhausting than planned as the sun got so strong that the snow got very soft in the afternoon. But then again, I should not complain about the weather. Otherwise it was perfect! I examined the cabin but I did not dare to make a fire inside without a proper inspection of the chimney. Also it looked like after decades of being forgotten and abandoned some animals had taken over 😉. So I decided to stay outside right next to the cabin for the night.
I had some campfire coffee with coffee cheese and later had dinner.
With -18°C or 0 F the night got a bit fresh so I slept in in the morning until the sun started warming up the tent a bit. After Breakfast it was time for the trip back – this time in my old tracks and on snow frozen hard as concrete. Way easier than the day before. Welcome to my world in April, North of the Arctic Circle.

Comments for each image below.

[...] when I plan to go on a small expedition into the wild on skis – same direction.
Rumour has it there is a tiny log building somewhere behind the swamps to the North. If it is there, I happen to be the owner as it would be included when we bought the cabin. As I have never been there yet I really want to find it 🤣
I have no idea what state it could be in. I looked up satellite images but resolution is bad. There seems to be something in between the trees. Could be a large boulder, or actually a roof. Well I will see ... hopefully. [...]
gear.jpg (my gear before I set off)
hill_1.jpg (spring landscape)
pulka_2.jpg (me dragging my pulka)
bird.jpg (some poor little thing sacrificed its life for a bigger feathery thing)
tour_5.jpg (finally, the cabin)
fire.jpg (time for calories and coffee)
kaffeost_1.jpg (coffee, coffee cheese and bread, what else do you need?)
kaffeost_2.jpg (coffee cheese, anyone? .. You just pour the boiling coffee on the cheese and it gets squeaky as halloumi. This or other animal fats in your coffee are typical survival traditions in Lapland)
camp_1.jpg (a bit of work to get warm before sleep)
camp_3.jpg (good night my boots!)
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
A walk along the river Lee
then on the boat
My brother in laws longboat up and down the rivers and canals
“Dutch summer houses on the way
beautiful day with two of the grandsons enjoying the trip
Four of them not feasible together though!
Enjoyed opening the locks but hard work
Steering the boat
Birds eye of the river with coffee on deck
Oh, and those yellow arrows again!F5E01611-A99F-4C48-A2B2-6BBDA74B8541.jpegA7A582E4-EE83-46C5-B06B-5596FC8BAA9F.jpegF12AFD39-D045-4985-B16F-B686E8133570.pngDC3C4CF7-FF06-4F7E-9431-2921759EBD67.png49B6A320-0947-4BE1-B1F1-D8ACCAEC226D.png2C56EF44-5A1F-4F76-99EA-7C7E923148CB.png3398276F-62C8-4E9D-A9C6-4F0926D9BF7B.pngDEA193C5-4536-456E-8878-5C94EE9E4F1D.pngF70F96A2-17DF-4369-98E0-4D3DB42D0C39.png
 
I never seem to manage with just a photo...I need a few words😁
Late heading out..
A short walk.
Lots of questions: what was here before? Who was here? How did they live?

This space will soon be filled with apartments. Air lost. View lost. Breathing space lost.
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We will not see the granite steps again..
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This shot of underfoot meeting points of surfaces covers the efforts to capture the end of an older waypath with the modern route to the future. Welcome!
F3B86253-A39C-4E57-9441-C00B7639F8A5.jpeg

Seize the day, look, listen, feel, smell. And ponder. Buen camino!
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
We're on our spring trip. This morning we're at North Carolina's outer banks. I got up a dawn to watch the sun rise. Two kilometers down the beach until I got to the bird nesting restricted area and then back in half the time.
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Here's a pic of our home away from home. It is the first morning of our trip south a few years ago. The heater wasn't in working order yet. It was a tad below freezing outside and only a tad above due to body heat. I told Peg we should wait a few days for things to warm up a bit but she really wanted to set out.

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The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
We camped in our smaller teardrop around Moab last month and it was pretty cold at night. Your rig looks it has more amenities than ours. Our heat is each other and an electric blanket. We have the 9 volt kind that shuts off after 45 minutes. We have a normal one in case we stay somewhere with shore power, too.
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
We love talking about our Tab and giving tours to campers and curious folks at gas stations. I'll go on just a bit here but I'm open to PMs if anyone has further questions.

Your rig looks it has more amenities than ours.
We say that it has everything the big guys have except space but when we're outside we have as much space as them. Ours is one of four variants of the 2017 Tab 320, the 320-S. The models are a combination of kitchen inside or outside (under a rear hatch) and a wardrobe or toilet/shower. The manufacturer also makes the slighter bigger and more luxurious 400 model (an owner told me there was enough room in the shower to pick up dropped soap off the heated floor) also trailers like yours and a pickup bed model. Curiously there are all foir types here at the campground; we are next to a Tag model. The trailers keep getting better year after year. Here's a link to the manufacturer's webpage for the current Tab 320 version and a retailer's video of the 2019 model that is closer to what we have.


YouTube video id: cS1OC2n8Jrs
 
New Original Camino Gear Designed Especially with The Modern Peregrino In Mind!
South West - Jæren beaches! A long stretch of sandy beaches that look a lot like something very tropical, until one gets in the water :D 🥶
Right now I am in my cabin 130 km east of Junkerdal nasjonalpark. So that is a very different world ;-) ... Oh, and being on the Swedish side, from here there is no road leading to Junkerdal, just wilderness skiing.


IMG_1985.jpg
 
A selection of Camino Jewellery
Home from a three day birding adventure. Some beautiful hiking and walking in the Okanagan / Similkameen regions of B.C. Highlights were a direct eye-line view from a hill of a Great Horned Owl and her two owlets in their Douglas fir tree nest. A night hike on a snowy mountain to listen to Barred Owls call. Spending a couple of hours counting waves of migrating Sandhill Cranes (estimated 1400) They were too far up to photograph but we sure could hear them and had good views through our leader's scope. A gathering of Yellow-headed Blackbirds nesting along a marsh. A hike to find Canyon Wrens and watch nesting Peregrine Falcons high on the face of stunning rock formations. Pulling off prickly pears that stabbed my calves and even into the leather of my boots! At the end of the trip, 94 beautiful bird species seen and heard.

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I’ve just returned from Exmouth on the NW Cape of Australia. A “short” drive up the coast with my son. The small town, population about 3000, was packed with visitors. And boy, was it worth it. This was my first time in all my 78 years. We had 55 secs of totality, and I have to say it was a shock to the senses. My son took the photo.
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I feel compelled to say that I had an overnight stay in Exmouth. Not a short drive at all and not normally a tourist spot. In 2017 we drove halfway across the US to get such a grand view of a total solar eclipse that we planned a trip to Argentina to view another. The pandemic made us skip that but coming soon we have another shot and it will be total over Peg's old hometown.
 
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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
Down bag (90/10 duvet) of 700 fills with 180 g (6.34 ounces) of filling. Mummy-shaped structure, ideal when you are looking for lightness with great heating performance.

€149,-
I did my last trainings two weeks before my Camino Portugues... 4 to 5 hours hikes on Medvednica mountain above Zagreb, here in Croatia.
Nice spring weather and mostly in the woods.
You can see the St. Jacob's Chapel, nice viewpoint and one of my favorite places on Medvednica.



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A grey day with constant snowfall. Nevertheless I went for a short walk in our little hamlet. Parts of the large river are already ice free and the swans have arrived, with a lot of singing to be heard in the river valley.
This is really nasty wet snow so I quickly decided to crawl back in and enjoy a cup of tea instead 🤣
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A selection of Camino Jewellery
Just finished my last 10 mile training hike through some desert like terrain and took photos of some colorful plants that arrived early courtesy of the heavy rainfall we experienced this year.
Now off to pack and board an airplane tomorrow !
 

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A couple of walks with my Irish friend who came for a visit
first our local park and then off to see the oldest wooden church in the world …St Andrews
The nave dates from between 998 and 1063
Its on the Essex way so we had a little wander on the path
Then off to see Lambourne church and a stop at the Woodman pub
Not much walking after that!IMG_4924.jpegIMG_4926.jpegIMG_4930.jpegIMG_4932.jpegIMG_4933.jpegIMG_4935.jpegIMG_4936.jpegIMG_4940.jpegIMG_4944.jpegIMG_4945.jpeg
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Well, I said in the earlier post it was my last walk before I depart to Spain ... but how wrong I was 🤣
Today the spring sun did melt almost all snow in the the forests close to the house. So it was time for a little picknick walk and a fire. It is one of our favourite picknick spots nearby, out on a remote stretch of land protruding into the river. It is also an area where brown bears take their long winter nap. And apparently they are awake now.

The remaining two Siberian Huskies Umiak and Arial (after the youngest, Ölina left this world) and the 5-months-old Border Collie Harrok (that is his official name, his nickname is Ludvig):
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Trees, we got many of those around:
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They are quite happy that there is so much to sniff now that the snow is gone:
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The river and some floating ice (the picknick spot):
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picknick-time 😎 :
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The brown bears are out and about again ... and probably veeery hungry 😉
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Down bag (90/10 duvet) of 700 fills with 180 g (6.34 ounces) of filling. Mummy-shaped structure, ideal when you are looking for lightness with great heating performance.

€149,-
A day of walking and reminiscing
A reunion after 50 years (unfortunately I had missed the other two)
The start of our nursing careers in 1973 at the famous London Hospital Whitechapel
Founded in 1740 for the people of the East end of London, an area of poverty and deprivation
a walk along Whitechapel road for lunch and chat at the white heart pub, then back for a tour of the old hospital and now the Town Hall, a larger hospital has been built behind this
Many old features have been beautifully preserved
it was also a very emotional tour for so many of us as our old wards and theatres are now offices
Another walk around the markets on Whitechapel road

A few famous people, perhaps known around the world came from Whitechapel
Jack the Ripper committed at least 5 murders in Whitechapel in 1888

John Merrick also known as The Elephant Man spent his last years in the hospital and his skeleton remains in the museum there
he died age 27 in 1890
A film called The Elephant Man with John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins was made a few years ago, a sad film

The Kray brothers, infamous as gangsters and murders lived near IMG_5077.pngIMG_5082.pngIMG_5080.pngIMG_5074.pngIMG_5073.pngIMG_5079.pngIMG_5076.pngIMG_5113.pngthe LH too
The pub The Blind Beggar, across the road from the LH and still going strong was made infamous when they shot and killed a rival there

the series Call the Midwife was made in the area and a surprise to see the beautiful uniform we wore featured

people from the East End are called Cockneys and have their own dialect of the English language eg Apples and pears….stairs
Trouble and strife….wife..! And so on and so forth

all in all a memorable day and with heels on my feet remembers it well
 
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Today May 8, 2023, here in rural France on the banks of the Marne river at 11am we commemorated the end of WW2 in Europe; the peace treaty had been signed 78 years ago during the night of May 7, 1945, at SHAEF in nearby Reims.

May we never forget.

Today I am grateful that I was able to walk to attend our local commemoration.
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
In the Netherlands, on May 4, we commemorate the victims of the Second World War in Europe and Southeast Asia. Since 1961 we also commemorate the victims of war situations and peacekeeping operations in which the Netherlands was involved after the Second World War.
This take place in every city, and everything stops for two minutes at 20.00hr.
Made the photo the day after.
They will not be forgotten. 🙏
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I had a break from checking in to this thread - a delightful one - but now am back. I have run through all the above and just want to say how lovely it is to be able to share across seasons and continents. Thanks to all contributors.
This morning, while on the light rail tram/train, I got to thinking: what is real? Many many things came to me, but this single photo on my subsequent walk to where I was going shows the miracle of life. It wasn't there yesterday, now it is there. Or it was, around 9am GMT!
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I have lots of other photos from a week in Warsaw, but most of them include people, so, I will share just this one of quite the most attractive cake after walking around the King's Palace...
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