In December 2020, I started documenting my walks with photographs themed around scenes of paths of many kinds receding into the distance ahead of me. I pursued this every day for 100 days or so, and it was a helpful, mindful practice during Covid lockdown restrictions, although I continued it on and off thereafter until February 2023. Here’s the complete set archived from original posts tagged #thewayahead at Twitter/X (which I have now left). (See also #fingerpostfriday.)

• 8 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 9 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 10 Dec 20

  #thewayahead (under scrutiny)

• 11 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 12 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 13 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 15 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 16 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 17 Dec 20

  #thewayahead #hookland

• 18 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 19 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 20 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 21 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 22 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 23 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 24 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 25 Dec 20

  #thewayahead In our family we call this the Britain tree from its vague Albion form. Sadly Kent snapped off a few months ago in a storm. Prescient? But if you look closely you can see #Hookland. Merry Yule, all.

• 26 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 27 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 28 Dec 20

  #thewayahead #winterbourne (Confession: I abandoned this way ahead and walked two extra miles to avoid it…)

• 29 Dec 20

  #thewayahead

• 30 Dec 20

  #thewayahead Today’s choice was between arty shots of icy puddles, or this, which has mysteriously sprouted in the last few days. Obvious winner.

• 31 Dec 20

  #thewayahead It’s said the poet Thomas Bridewell loped through these woods to #Hookland in a fugue state. His journal entries are fragmentary, elusive, but I can see which way he went.

• 1 Jan 21

  #thewayahead An old soldier, standing steadfast while humans come and go down the ages.

• 2 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 3 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 4 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 5 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 6 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 7 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 8 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 9 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 10 Jan 21

  A lost sole on #thewayahead

• 11 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 12 Jan 21

  Keeping watch over #thewayahead

• 13 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 14 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 15 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 16 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 17 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 18 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 19 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 20 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 21 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 22 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 23 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 24 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 24 Jan 21

  @SlowWaysUK @nsummers1234 Oxfordshire Cotswolds (see #thewayahead)

• 25 Jan 21

  #thewayahead #snowways

• 27 Jan 21

  “In my laudanum-tinctured fever it seemed as if the very trees reached out to grasp me.” – Thomas Bridewell, Journal #thewayahead #hookland

• 28 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 30 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 31 Jan 21

  #thewayahead

• 1 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 2 Feb 21

  #thewayahead – snowdrops for #Candlemas and #Imbolc

• 3 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 4 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 5 Feb 21

  Well quite. #thewayahead

• 6 Feb 21

  Lost and bewildered at the Round Castle earthwork, Thomas Bridewell wrote in his journal of the moss men, but this has always been attributed to his condition. #thewayahead @HooklandGuide

• 6 Feb 21

  Some of us bite. #thewayahead

• 7 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 8 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 9 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 10 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 11 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 12 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 13 Feb 21

  #thewayahead Icy path snaking forth, as though we’re in the wake of Andy Goldsworthy.

• 14 Feb 21

  #thewayahead – oh, and #thewayback and #thewayover, etc

• 15 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 16 Feb 21

  #thewayahead (a Covid ‘priority postbox’ serving four rural houses and which is too small for the test boxes anyway!)

• 17 Feb 21

  Signs of hope on #thewayahead

• 18 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 19 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 20 Feb 21

  #thewayahead Last of the hipsters?

• 21 Feb 21

  #thewayahead #theneighahead

• 22 Feb 21

  #thewayahead #cryptozoology

• 23 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 24 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 25 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 26 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 27 Feb 21

  #thewayahead 6-mile maiden voyage for new boots. Happy face.

• 28 Feb 21

  #thewayahead

• 1 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 2 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 3 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 4 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 5 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 6 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 7 Mar 21

  #thewayahead Squint and you could be on Easter Island…

• 8 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 9 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 10 Mar 21

  So today is my 100th #thewayahead picture in a row (and the first time I’ve cheated by not using a picture taken on the same day). I’m going to stop this now, and just post more interesting shots occasionally. 1/3

• 13 Mar 21

  #thewayahead … but which one?

• 18 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 25 Mar 21

  After 10 years here there’s only one footpath within 3 miles that I’ve never been on (largely because it involves a busy B road at one end). Achievement unlocked. #thewayahead

• 28 Mar 21

  #thewayahead

• 6 Apr 21

  #thewayahead

• 11 Apr 21

  #thewayahead

• 12 Apr 21

  #thewayahead on 12th April?!

• 15 Apr 21

  “An ancient, hungry king beneath the tump, his maw enarboured” – Thomas Bridewell, ‘Anthropophage’, 1874. #FolkloreThursday #thewayahead #hookland

• 16 Apr 21

  #thewayahead

• 23 Apr 21

  #thewayahead – today marks my 400th consecutive daily walk (min. 3 miles, max. 25 miles, ave. 5.8 miles)

• 27 Apr 21

  Somebody may be hopping on #thewayahead

• 30 Apr 21

  Now *this* is someone who knows about #thewayahead – Why I’m running 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain solo theguardian.com/travel/2021/ap…

• 2 May 21

  #thewayahead

• 15 May 21

  #thewayahead

• 25 May 21

  #thewayahead

• 29 Jun 21

  We’re hitting Peak Green on #thewayahead

• 13 Jul 21

  #thewayahead #slowways

• 24 Jul 21

  #thewayahead

• 1 Aug 21

  I was walking regularly anyway but lockdowns etc focused me on consistency. Today is Day 500. (Rule is bare minimum of 3 miles but average is about 5.5.) Now what? #thewayahead

• 2 Aug 21

  #thewayahead

• 9 Aug 21

  #thewayahead

• 13 Aug 21

  #thewayahead

• 13 Aug 21

  This amazing place is one of the two quarries in Wales where the bluestones of #Stonehenge came from. #thewayahead

• 19 Aug 21

  #thewayahead

• 20 Aug 21

  #thewayahead

• 31 Aug 21

  #thewayahead #thewaybehind

• 11 Sep 21

  #thewayahead

• 15 Nov 21

  #thewayahead

• 16 Nov 21

  #thewayahead ?

• 20 Nov 21

  #thewayahead

• 21 Nov 21

  Might not be on #thewayahead much longer – both kids have Covid…

• 26 Nov 21

  #thewayahead Have just walked a mile up and down this corridor (self-isolating), accompanied by @jonronson’s excellent Things Fell Apart

• 2 Dec 21

  Out of isolation, battered but active, and back on #thewayahead

• 18 Jan 22

  #thewayahead

• 28 Jan 22

  One of today’s signs on #thewayahead – one for @nickhayesillus1 and @guyshrubsole – whatever a ‘sunbath’ is.

• 22 Feb 22

  Glad my old friend is still here on #thewayahead

• 29 Mar 22

  Moss on #thewayahead

• 2 Apr 22

  Ah, the colours of spring on #thewayahead

• 3 Apr 22

  The what?! #thewayahead

• 10 Apr 22

  #thewayahead

• 11 Apr 22

  #thewayahead

• 13 Apr 22

  Bathtime on #thewayahead

• 14 Apr 22

  Giving #thewayahead some welly.

• 15 Apr 22

  Early Netflix? #thewayahead

• 19 Apr 22

  Gulp. #thewayahead

• 6 May 22

  Folk horror on #thewayahead? Or perhaps a slip into #hookland.

• 27 May 22

  Choices for #fingerpostfriday @FingerpostFri on #thewayahead

• 30 May 22

  #thewayahead

• 7 Jun 22

  Bee. Cranesbill. #thewayahead

• 7 Jun 22

  Papaverousness on #thewayahead

• 13 Jun 22

  Oh yes. #thewayahead

• 5 Jul 22

  Small skipper and scabious on #thewayahead

• 10 Aug 22

  Glowing tunnel on #thewayahead

• 10 Aug 22

  Night walk, railway, harvest moon. #thewayahead

• 12 Aug 22

  Choices on #thewayahead for #FingerpostFriday

• 26 Aug 22

  Enough ways for you on #thewayahead? #fingerpostfriday

• 29 Aug 22

  #thewayahead

• 30 Aug 22

  Gulp. #thewayahead

• 2 Sep 22

  I’m not sure this is strictly canonical for #fingerpostfriday but it unambiguously shows #thewayahead…

• 16 Sep 22

  A sunny face on #thewayahead

• 7 Oct 22

  Happy #fingerpostfriday 🥾 #thewayahead

• 14 Nov 22

  An atmospheric start to #thewayahead today.

• 17 Nov 22

  Gotta love autumn on #thewayahead

• 8 Dec 22

  The tree’s embrace on #thewayahead

• 15 Dec 22

  A cheeky -8.6° on #thewayahead today.

• 1 Jan 23

  The zigzag of 2023 on #thewayahead

• 27 Feb 23

  A guiding hand on #thewayahead

I’ve stopped using Twitter/X now (as of September 2023) in favour of writing here instead. But one of the things I enjoyed most at the site was the gentle world of #fingerpostfriday run by Hayley Howard. Here is an archive of my contributions to the trend, between May 2022 and August 2023, which also serves as a reminder, to me at least, of some of my many walks in that period and the joys of the British landscape.

• 6 May 22

  One from a couple of weeks ago for #fingerpostfriday

• 6 May 22

  OK, permit me a repost now that I know about @FingerpostFri #fingerpostfriday – but this time without the feeble Netflix gag.

• 20 May 22

  1. So my new thing here is the #10tweetadventure – exploring corners of history or landscape, but told in no more than 10 tweets. Today, for @FingerpostFri #FingerpostFriday, let’s start with the source of the River Thames. Except… it isn’t.

• 27 May 22

  Choices for #fingerpostfriday @FingerpostFri on #thewayahead

• 17 Jun 22

  Something from this week for #fingerpostfriday

• 5 Aug 22

  And speaking of #FingerpostFriday …

• 12 Aug 22

  Choices on #thewayahead for #FingerpostFriday

• 26 Aug 22

  Enough ways for you on #thewayahead? #fingerpostfriday

• 2 Sep 22

  I’m not sure this is strictly canonical for #fingerpostfriday but it unambiguously shows #thewayahead…

• 2 Sep 22

  Here’s a more canonical #fingerpostfriday entry from this week’s walking.

• 9 Sep 22

  Take your pick for #fingerpostfriday

• 16 Sep 22

  Something for #fingerpostfriday – and my latest newsletter is about the place where you can find them… gethistories.com/p/most-secret-…

• 23 Sep 22

  For #fingerpostfriday, this is always a welcome sight on a walk I do most weeks.

• 7 Oct 22

  Happy #fingerpostfriday 🥾 #thewayahead

• 28 Oct 22

  Another week, another county, another walk, another #fingerpostfriday

• 25 Nov 22

  Back with an old friend for #fingerpostfriday

• 9 Dec 22

  Is it too late for #fingerpostfriday?

• 16 Dec 22

  Wait, what? A round trip for #fingerpostfriday @FingerpostFri

• 30 Dec 22

  A bit wadey this #FingerpostFriday

• 6 Jan 23

  Land vs water. #fingerpostfriday

• 20 Jan 23

  Twas a crisp morning walk for #fingerpostfriday today.

• 27 Jan 23

  Happy birthday to @FingerpostFri #fingerpostfriday

• 10 Feb 23

  RT @richardf: So, for #FingerpostFriday, here’s (I think) Britain’s first European walking route sign. Installed yesterday in Charlbury. Tu…

• 24 Feb 23

  Something for everyone on #fingerpostfriday

• 10 Mar 23

  Am I allowed the oldest kind of waymarker for #fingerpostfriday?

• 24 Mar 23

  Decisions, decisions for #fingerpostfriday

• 28 Apr 23

  It’s #fingerpostfriday – you can go that way, or that way. Or somewhere else.

• 5 May 23

  It’s #fingerpostfriday – unless you’re a horse.

• 12 May 23

  There are always choices on #fingerpostfriday

• 19 May 23

  And here’s the confluence of #fingerpostfriday and #dunstanday twitter.com/chapmanbookman…

• 26 May 23

  This way? #fingerpostfriday

• 9 Jun 23

  HOW MUCH?! #fingerpostfriday

• 16 Jun 23

  A disconcerting #fingerpostfriday

• 30 Jun 23

  A slightly more serious note for #fingerpostfriday this week. This wonderful path runs through a local ancient woodland. (1/4)

• 4 Aug 23

  Where now? Who cares, it’s beautiful. #fingerpostfriday

• 25 Aug 23

  Keep thinking of leaving Twitter but then #fingerpostfriday brings me back…