-------- Forwarded Message --------
| Subject: | Walking from Home - the launch of a new book of walks |
|---|---|
| Date: | Wed, 27 Feb 2019 18:02:29 +0000 |
| From: | Pam Johnson <pamjohnson.99@googlemail.com> |
| To: | Yoland Brown <brownhill@eleventowns.org.uk>, Oswestry Network <oswestrynet@gmail.com> |
WALKING FROM HOME
Twelve journeys in the Welsh Borders
By Simon Jackson
Illustrations by Sue Jackson and Sally Lewis
Design and typesetting by John Neilson
Walking from Home recounts twelve walks in twelve months starting from home in the Welsh Borders near Oswestry. Eight of the walks are circular, two to each quadrant of the compass, all following much-walked routes over the fifteen years of living in the area.
The others are linear walks venturing out of the familiar landscapes. Llangollen and the dramatic Dee valley to the north. Welshpool and the Severn Valley to the south. Wem and the Shropshire Plain to the east and Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall and the Berwyn Mountains to the west.
The book explores the well-loved landscape around home, its geology, the pattern of its fields and woods and the buildings that inhabit it. The walks encounter history, the old drove roads, Offa's Dyke, and the site of Owain Glyndwr's castle and lands at Sycharth, and geography, the valley of the Cynllaith and its tributaries, the many hills that surround us, Gyrn Moelfre the biggest of them standing at 1,750 feet.
The twelve monthly walks allow the annual progress of nature, the flowers and trees, the birds and animals to be observed and favourite local species, bluebells, ash trees and redstarts to be evoked.
Always there are views near and far and the endless variation of light and colour in the landscape to be treasured as they frame and underly the month's walk.
The walks were taken in the periodic companionship of poets John Clare, R S Thomas and T S Eliot, artists whose work the walks called to mind - Cezanne, Turner and James Dickson Innes and writers George Borrow, whose "Wild Wales" includes walks he did in the locality, and Francis Kilvert.
The landscape where my heart is was the inspiration for recording these walks, my diagnosis with Parkinson's Disease the trigger for starting the project. Oh yes, and the dog needed a walk!
