This blog is about walking but also what happens to me when I walk. That is – like with many of us – I drift, not off the path, although that often happens too (and that can be sometimes rewarding or challenging). No, the ‘drift’ that I’m referring to is the thoughts that occur as I walk.
I have come to refer to this as ‘slow walking’.
First and foremost I love the experience of walking. The landscapes, topography, plants, wind, light, wildlife and people I meet are a never ending fascination to me but also the experience often (not always) can inspire memories, thoughts, stories and physical happiness. And sometimes I get wet, cold and miserable too. Yet that is all part of it. I’m never sure what there’ll be. It’s all about the novelty of the adventure. I hope you enjoy it too.
James Rogerson November 2019
Latest Posts
The Monarch’s Way – Broom Cliff to Golden Cap May 23rd 2023
This would be the first time I would have been on the Monarch’s Way since September the 18th last year. It was the day before the Queen’s funeral. I can still remember the sense of a nation in mourning: flags at half mast; everyone talking about ‘she’ or ‘her’. Here I am three weeks after…
SWCP. Zennor to Carn Naun Point February 14th 2023
Jackdaws, my only consistent company around the Western tip of Cornwall, fly fast and straight over the cliffs from some crag, their glossy black bodies perfectly still as they disappear over the edge. I’m facing north into the wind at Zennor Head. It’s morning and I am alone on the path. Turning east I disturb…
Curry Rivel March 21st
A sudden return to Winter today. Rain all morning and the cottage gloomy within. Strips of water can be seen down on the moors and I’m never without my woolly hat and snood. In the early afternoon lashing winds arrive that whip the trees and telephone wires along the road sending the rooks up into…
Curry Rivel March 14th
Today at last there is a hint of Spring. The wind is up. It still has its chill but the sun is warm. Clouds are everywhere: great hulks, thin streaks and little puffs like that look like they’ve appeared from a cartoon steam engine stream across the sky. They all come and then go in…
SWCP. Zennor February 14th 2023
I leave Zennor on a road that turns into a track that turns into a path. The sun is out and revealing the brown and green coat of the land and the grey rocks that people every part of this landscape. My step and mood are lighter today. What a difference a day can make.…
Curry Rivel March 14th
The rooks are raucous today in the trees opposite the farm. I can hear their constant squawking all the way up the path past the tennis court and to the top field. The hawthorn trees along Holden’s Way are suddenly snowy now with their little star shaped flowers. Their petals dot the path like confetti.…
SWCP – Zennor. February 13th.
It’s February half term and I’m back in Cornwall, back on the coast path. I’m staying at The Tinners Arms pub in Zennor in a little room next to a dead end lane which looks directly onto the small, squat tower of the church and an ancient wall made of great blocks of granite so…
SWCP Zennor February 14th
I woke in the middle of the night, got dressed and let myself out of the old building attached to the pub. There was a wind whipping the ivy on the granite wall just outside my bedroom window. Behind it the squat block of Zennor church was silhouetted against the sky; stars burned above it…
Curry Rivel February 7th
It’s below freezing once again outside the cottage. I had an extra blanket, a hot water bottle and socks on in bed last night. The heads of the hydrangea outside the front door are brown and sagging while underneath them the heads of snowdrops bow in unison offering some hope of new life amongst the…
The Slow Walker – Muchelney January 7th
As I arrive at the bridge over the River Parrett at Muchelney the near world transforms. The sky and abundant water are granite grey while lines of greens and oranges of the grass and plants are thrown into vivid detail and shocking brightness by the sudden emergence of the sun. The colours are saturated; they…
Night Walks Clifton December 15th
It is minus 2 and going to drop to minus 6 later tonight. It’s clear and the stars flicker at me up above. Am I feeling Christmasy yet? Well I haven’t done any shopping yet but that’s normal. The roofs of the cars glitter on Pembroke Road. Ice meanders across a bonnet like the metal…
Curry Rivel December 13th
Minus temperatures outside and the finest dusting of snow in the garden, on the walls and my newly made log pile. When I look at the sky it reminds me of Ronnie Blythe’s line ‘the clouds are full of it.’ It’s got that dirty grey colour to it while the sun is a pale presence…
Curry Rivel December 7th
The day is clear, cold and bright. Marie drops off a truck load of wood from Wiltown Farm and we talk about the cold and the rising price of everything including the wood. She has three hundred sheep now. The price of a lamb has gone up from £70 to £150 but so has the…
Curry Rivel December 6th
It’s cold but clear. The pale face of the moon is up already in the blue sky in the east looking a bit aghast at how early it is for him. It’s quarter to four. The air is cold on my hands and legs. The owl and the pussycat barn is only a hundred metres…
Curry Rivel November 29th
There is a freezing fog this morning that cloaks everything and doesn’t shift the entire day. It brings a dreamlike quality to the world – nothing is quite as it seems. Straight lines of gossamer connect the saddle stone outside my front door to the bin – they look like silver tightropes. The air is…
a kind of wander 