Julie's Jabber - This week with London LDWA


Julie's Jabber - This week with London LDWA
https://ldwa.org.uk/lgt/new/logos/london.png

London LDWA

I hope everyone's managed to enjoy some good walking in spite of the increasingly uncertain weather, which with gyms still rather risky places to visit saw me enjoying a personal training session in a shelter in a soggy Greenwich Park on Thursday.  I'll just leave you with the image of me doing planks on a park bench while more sensible people were taking part in Godfrey's walk from Harrow to Rickmansworth.

 

godrey harrow rickmansworth

Godfrey's 15th October walk from Harrow to Rickmansworth via Ruislip took in the Celandine and Hillingdon Trails
PHOTO Paul Lawrence

 

paul heath robinson pic

Along the way, the walkers passed a museum and Paul glimpsed this Heath Robinson cartoon through w window. His caption? It seems, he observes, to resonate with these socially distanced times!

 

GPH files for the walk are now on the LDWA London website, along with a selection of Paul's photos  Harrow to Rickmansworth

 

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If the photo below looks familiar, that's because it was in last week's Jabber. Melissa Butcher took it on a South Downs circular and LDWA chair David Morgan was so enthused by it that he asked permission for it to be used as one of the rotating images for the Facebook LDWA group. The object of the exercise is to move away from traditional photos of fields towards images that look more fun, or just something different from what people might expect of the LDWA. Props to Melissa for a great picture that shows what LDWA London is all about.

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melissa south downs walk


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Another set of images in last week's Jabber, from the 2012 Games 100, stirred a few memories. Rod Smith recalled, 'I can see Mike Ratcliffe (Kent), yellow top, slightly left of centre - I finished 10 minutes or so ahead of him, having passed him without knowing it in heavy rain walking up to the Copper Horse,with my head down, knowing the end was nigh! On page 38, Greenwich tunnel, looks like Ali Pretty just walking out of the photo, with Nick Marshall & Raelene next. Page 45, Steve Garnsey in hi-viz yellow. Page 46, Paula Buckton & Suzanne W.  I will try to find my 'in-the-thick of the action' photo from Victoria Park when I'm back in London. Thanks again for the memory!'

Meanwhile, Francis Thomason commented: 'The last photograph in the Strider report on the Games Hundred is of me sleeping captioned even the floor will do. It doesn’t show my face, just back and bum, and yes, it HAS been suggested that the photographer was finding my best side.'

 

francis at games finish

Francis's best side

 

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At the risk of sounding as though I'm blowing my own trumpet, I'm taking part this coming Thursday evening in an online event organised by the Friends of West Hampstead Library. The reason I mention it here is that 1) libraries are an all-round good thing and deserve to be supported 2)  it's FREE and would be something to listen to if there's nothing on the telly. I'll be reading a couple of extracts from my book, and as it's a library-related evening what better than the contribution by our own Gavin Fuller, who was kind enough to let me interview him about Fleet Street libraries past and present. If you'd like to dip in. Go to Friends of West Hampstead Library

 

libray flyer w hampstead

 

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thing on leigh walk

 

A couple of Jabbers ago I asked if anyone could identify this unusual object photographed by Ian Watson en route during Ron Williamson's walk from Shoeburyness to Leigh-on-Dea. There was quite a response.  Francis Thomason and Colin Watson thought it was  a fungus known as 'dryad's saddle'. Deborah Metters, Kate Copeland, Adam Dawson and Judith Griffiths plumped for a bee hotel. Which means the final score is Bees 4 Fungus 2 (and yes, that's a result I'd have been much happier with than yesterday's Spurs 3 West Ham 3).

 

London LDWA - http://www.ldwa.org.uk/London