Skip to main content

Wanderlust

We've done quite a bit of wandering about recently... and our wandering has taken many different forms and its almost interesting to consider the different interpretations of meandering, wending, lolloping and plain ambling... my limited but recent experience tells me some people - and I don't want to stereotype - but mainly men - are not good at meandering.. or even wending.. probably not enough shopping experience... they tend to go for lolloping or brisk focused marching.. they haven't got a clue about the tiny but necessary shifts in tempo good meandering takes - the need to "wend" ever so slightly and the ability to stop often to absorb the locality!    Alternatively it needs to be understood that constant wending is a different kind of wandering and needn't always include meandering as this will slow the process down.  In fact sometimes wending can be quite brisk especially if there is a tea room or a pub waiting at the end or middle of a wending trail.  Lolloping is for young people or those who think they are young and brisk lolloping is for those who have skinny dipped (or in underwear) in freezing hillside water who are at risk of hyperthermia once back on dry land.  The best kind of wandering is a constant amble, taking time to look at, listen to and enjoy the scenery.  Sometimes ambling requires lengthy sit downs to draw or read and often also requires a willing partner or friend to carry the necessary art supplies and reading material as a true ambler affects a certain nonchalance and acts as if they are only there by mistake or by some divine providence......  ramblers by the way are completely different they have INTENT!!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful.   There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

Isle of Bute

 Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors!   The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay.  The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...

The Blue Dot

Excellent evening spent at the first Blue Dot festival held at Jodrell Bank.  Clever use of the radio telescope as back drop for the main stage... there were some major teething issues which hopefully will addressed if this event happens again - mainly access and parking.. it was a nightmare approach to the festival and fortunately as we were only doing one night we decided to ditch the car and chose to walk the last mile and half into the site... what a relief as if we had queued we would most certainly missed Public Service Broadcasting which was one of the reasons we were going.. anyway we caught them and then enjoyed fantastic set by Underworld - danced much of the night away in the rain - my trusty solfest poncho almost kept me dry.. it was a splendid evening and the telescope looked brilliant when lit up when it got dark. There was a rather fab "installation" called a luminarium, lack of site information - another hiccup meant we were really lucky to catch it just ...