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Post by Heron on May 4, 2010 19:18:27 GMT -1
with the aid of google maps, a ruler and some GCSE geography dredged from the depths of memory, i worked out the walk from the car to the bothy was about 2.7 miles all uphill. A bracing stroll Though not one that you would normally choose to do carrying coal!
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Post by Heron on May 4, 2010 19:21:23 GMT -1
To everyone on the gathering- Thanks for a great time, to Francis for the use of his land and a big thanks for the welcome. I echo that. Particularly the thanks to Francis for hosting, and thinking of the bothy -- and of course the lamb sausages!
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Post by Francis on May 14, 2010 10:06:14 GMT -1
Dear All
I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to say anything about the weekend. It was a very different experience from the one I'd imagined.
On reflection I think I should have chosen a different place for us to spend the night - I hadn't meant for the effort of the walk to the bothy to colour the weekend as much as it did.
I'd wanted it to be long enough that it would have felt like we had journeyed together somewhere - to have felt, heard and absorbed the echo of those who had walked into the hills at the start of summer in times past - far enough to have felt the satisfaction of arriving, and the joy of taking the weight off your feet and sitting down at the end of the journey - but not to have been exhausting! I'm walking up and down hills pretty much every day, and whilst not fit I am more used to it than most - and consequently unable to judge what most folk would find comfortable.
That sounds like I'm bragging about my fitness - please know that I'm not - I'm expressing my regret at having misjudged the walk I asked you to follow me on given the loads you had to carry!
For me the greatest thing I got from the weekend was the sense of building the tribe, the gaining of some true familiarity with each other beyond this online game of shadows. It takes me a while to comfortably talk about my inner spiritual life with people - I have to really know them.
On the way to the bothy all the echoes, memories of place and voices on the wind - places with exhilaration and the times when I felt the tears - I didn't say a word. I don't know why? It was that which I had hoped to share. Instead I just arsed on about the mundane. I'd thought we would have talked more, and more deeply. I know that next time I will find it easier to do that with you face to face.
As others have said the weekend wasn't what we expected, but I believe it has been a valuable physical foundation for us - I at least really needed some time just physically being together, breaking down some of my unfortunate mental barriers, and I really look forward to our next meeting.
Thank you all for coming.
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Post by Lee on May 14, 2010 11:49:02 GMT -1
On reflection I think I should have chosen a different place for us to spend the night - I hadn't meant for the effort of the walk to the bothy to colour the weekend as much as it did. I'd wanted it to be long enough that it would have felt like we had journeyed together somewhere - to have felt, heard and absorbed the echo of those who had walked into the hills at the start of summer in times past - far enough to have felt the satisfaction of arriving, and the joy of taking the weight off your feet and sitting down at the end of the journey - but not to have been exhausting! I'm walking up and down hills pretty much every day, and whilst not fit I am more used to it than most - and consequently unable to judge what most folk would find comfortable. speaking personally, i think the walk was just right; it wasnt an easy stroll - for some of us it was hard work (and if nothing else an incentive to maybe try to regain some level fitness lost to the past) and as such felt like something had been achieved. the walk there was a pig; the rain, the wind, the heavy loads. all of these though focus the mind on what ti might have been like X number of years ago. you mentioned at one point what it would have been like if you and Mrs Francis with the 2 little ones in tow had to bring the flock up there as a family and with other families. (jokes about strapping offspring no. 2 to a ram to carry him aside of course ) seeing those fold along the way and trying to begin to imagine what that walk meant to people who really did rely on the landscape to survive. i found the walk there hard, and i am glad i did. it means i achieved something. dont be hard on yourself about it, for all the peculiarities of the weekend and our time in the bothy i am EXTREMELY grateful for it. you too eh? i had similar things in mind too - things to share, to talk about but they didnt come. i wont say it is because of a level of mistrust, but perhaps a level of trepidation about talking about quite personal ideas and thoughts with people we are still only getting to know in real life. come our next get together - and the one after that me and potia have in mind - i think these barriers will fall away. roll on that time!
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Post by Heron on May 16, 2010 14:03:49 GMT -1
The walk for fine for me, though I'm used to such walks. But even for those who found it challenging, as Potia as indicated, it made it more of a 'journey'. I thought the bothy was a good choice - nicer if we'd had it to ourselves of course! It's inevitable that deeper conversations are more difficult when people haven't have that much face-to-face contact. It might be that we need to set up a session specifically with a deeper interaction programmed into it. Potia put 'Winternights' into that cycle she did, and this is a traditional time for this (I know that Jez has had sessions in her house for this where people bring there own personal stories to share with each other). I don't know if we could organise such a thing. The scheduled 'CalanGaeaf' meeting is in fact rather early in October (and I almost certainly won't be able to make that particular weekend) while a Winternights would be late November. I wonder ... what about that place we considered for the Mistletoe weekend?
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Post by potia on May 16, 2010 18:58:14 GMT -1
While the weekend was not quite what I expected, it was a very special weekend for me and a wonderful experience.
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