- 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 21A lost sole on #thewayahead
- 11 Jan 21#thewayahead
- 12 Jan 21Keeping 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 21Well quite. #thewayahead
- 6 Feb 21Lost 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 21Some 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 21Signs 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 21So 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 21After 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 21Somebody may be hopping on #thewayahead
- 30 Apr 21Now *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 21We’re hitting Peak Green on #thewayahead
- 13 Jul 21#thewayahead #slowways
- 24 Jul 21#thewayahead
- 1 Aug 21I 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 21This 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 21Might 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 21Out of isolation, battered but active, and back on #thewayahead
- 18 Jan 22#thewayahead
- 28 Jan 22One of today’s signs on #thewayahead – one for @nickhayesillus1 and @guyshrubsole – whatever a ‘sunbath’ is.
- 22 Feb 22Glad my old friend is still here on #thewayahead
- 29 Mar 22Moss on #thewayahead
- 2 Apr 22Ah, the colours of spring on #thewayahead
- 3 Apr 22The what?! #thewayahead
- 10 Apr 22#thewayahead
- 11 Apr 22#thewayahead
- 13 Apr 22Bathtime on #thewayahead
- 14 Apr 22Giving #thewayahead some welly.
- 15 Apr 22Early Netflix? #thewayahead
- 19 Apr 22Gulp. #thewayahead
- 6 May 22Folk horror on #thewayahead? Or perhaps a slip into #hookland.
- 27 May 22Choices for #fingerpostfriday @FingerpostFri on #thewayahead
- 30 May 22#thewayahead
- 7 Jun 22Bee. Cranesbill. #thewayahead
- 7 Jun 22Papaverousness on #thewayahead
- 13 Jun 22Oh yes. #thewayahead
- 5 Jul 22Small skipper and scabious on #thewayahead
- 10 Aug 22Glowing tunnel on #thewayahead
- 10 Aug 22Night walk, railway, harvest moon. #thewayahead
- 12 Aug 22Choices on #thewayahead for #FingerpostFriday
- 26 Aug 22Enough ways for you on #thewayahead? #fingerpostfriday
- 29 Aug 22#thewayahead
- 30 Aug 22Gulp. #thewayahead
- 2 Sep 22I’m not sure this is strictly canonical for #fingerpostfriday but it unambiguously shows #thewayahead…
- 16 Sep 22A sunny face on #thewayahead
- 7 Oct 22Happy #fingerpostfriday 🥾 #thewayahead
- 14 Nov 22An atmospheric start to #thewayahead today.
- 17 Nov 22Gotta love autumn on #thewayahead
- 8 Dec 22The tree’s embrace on #thewayahead
- 15 Dec 22A cheeky -8.6° on #thewayahead today.
- 1 Jan 23The zigzag of 2023 on #thewayahead
- 27 Feb 23A guiding hand on #thewayahead
Pictures of the way ahead
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.)
“The Minster is very large and fine of stone, carv’d all the outside 3 high towers above the Leads”
“I was in one of them, the highest, and it was 262 steps and those very steep steps” [the Minster says 275 and I made it 281!]
“On the Leads of the tower shews a vast prospect of the Country at least 30 mile round, you see all over the town that looks as a building too much cluster’d together, the Streets being so narrow, some were pretty long.”