Ice and the price of progress – first published 2 December 2012

My first Moonwalk training walk of December 2012 took me on what was to become, more or less, one of my current walks to work. At the time, it was a walk I hadn’t done in years and some things weren’t how I remembered them at all. Sometimes it seems progress isn’t always for the better…

2 December 2012

This morning the Moonwalk training walk was supposed to be forty five minutes and I thought I’d go up to the Giant Sainsbury’s in Portswood in search of skinny cord trousers. Plotting the route on WalkJogRun I was surprised to find it was only just over one and a half miles but I figured there and back would probably take me the forty five minutes. That sounded like a plan until Commando said it was cheating if I stopped half way to go round the store. What a spoil sport. It wasn’t as if I was going to stop for a coffee or anything, although in my Moonwalk training last time I quite often stopped for a coffee in the Swan Centre at Eastleigh on the way back and, on one of my twenty six mile walks, I actually stopped there for a Big Mac and chocolate milkshake. In my defence, I had just walked twenty one miles and I hadn’t had any food apart from a couple of cereal bars since I set out more than six hours before.

The frost was still thick when I left and I was glad of my new mitten gloves and floppy eared hat at first. By the time I got to the river I’d warmed up and was feeling a little peeved that I’d forgotten my iPod again. Although I took it off the dock when I got my coat I must have put it down when I put my boots on and forgotten to pick it up again. Peeking through a gap in the fence by the moorings just before I came to Cobden Bridge I could see lots of little boats tied up and a real mackerel sky. Looks like we’re in for some unstable weather and maybe even a little snow if the fishermen’s sayings are to be believed.

In what seemed like no time at all I was outside the Giant Sainsbury’s. Ok, so I did get a little on the lost and confused side when I came to the new road layout in Portswood, but it didn’t take long to work it out. The store is new, it only opened this summer, and I’ve never actually been inside before but, as you can see the building for miles (even from the Big Hill, like a huge white blot on the landscape), I figured it was going to have a massive stock and I might be in luck with the trousers.

When I got inside though I was sadly disappointed. From the outside it’s a monstrously large building but inside it is hardly bigger then my own Sainsbury’s and, if anything, has less in the way of clothes and kitchen stuff. Seems to me it’s like some kind of reverse Tardis, not an improvement at all on the old bus station which did at least have the advantage of being less obtrusive. Perhaps if it wasn’t so square and white I might like it better. On the plus side it did mean I didn’t really stop, I paused the WalkJogRun when I entered the shop, dashed to the clothing section which was just inside and dashed back out again. It was probably less than two minutes and I’m sure I’d have taken longer for a toilet stop.

With the WalkJogRun unpaused I retraced my steps back towards The Triangle. The Trees in the churchyard at St Denys were bare of leaves and I marvelled at the number of abandoned birds nests in one particular silver birch. There were none in any of the other trees and I wondered what was so special about that tree that all the birds built their nests in it. Funny the things I notice and think about when I’m walking.

Before long I was back at Triangle clock tower, nice and warm from keeping up a brisk pace and almost home. There was no doubt that I’d easily make my forty five minute target but I decided to stretch it out a bit just to be sure and take a less direct route. Instead of turning towards the main road just after The Triangle I carried on straight ahead, past the Tesco Express, up the hill almost to the top and then turned and skirted round the old monastery, now a school and college. It’s longer but much nicer than walking up the main road with traffic speeding past. The lane leading past the monastery is leafy and winding then there’s a little footpath behind the houses called Monks Walk that leads right up to the gate. When I was a child we used to go and play on the big field there in the summer holidays. Sometimes the brothers in their monk’s habits would come out and talk to us. Now I was surprised and a little disappointed to find a locked gate. Times have changed I guess but it seems a shame that local children have one less place to run around and let off steam.

Monks Walk was still pretty icy in places, even though it was well past midday. It’s more of a gravel track than a proper path and one big puddle looked like it was surrounded by shards of broken glass. They were actually pieces of ice where someone, perhaps one of the brothers, had broken through, maybe to stop walkers slipping. A little further on, I turned onto the road at the bottom of the hill and thought at first there was a drift of snow in the gutter. When I looked closer I could see it was just thick ice with leaves set in it like insects in amber. I shivered and carried on through the little cutway beside the school not really thinking too much about where I was headed.

My feet took me up towards Hum Hole of their own accord. That name always makes me think of Winnie The Pooh for some reason and I half expect to see a Hunny Tree every time I walk through. Where the Hum part of the name comes from is anyone’s guess but the Hole part is probably because it’s a big dip surrounded by woods with a little stream running through. Well it was before the advent of the bypass. There are less  woods now. Some have been turned into a car park and quite a bit is now a new road. The remainder is still a haven for wildlife and there’s a pond, of sorts, and some seats. Part of the woodland path is still there although I’ve not walked it since the bypass was built so I’m not sure where what’s left leads now, perhaps that’s something for another day. These days, rather than a leafy path through the woods there’s tarmac, paving and some steps leading up to the road. None of this seems to be much of an improvement as far as I can see but I suppose that’s the price of progress.

As I was was now more than half way up the Big Hill I decided I might as well go to the top and get a Sunday paper before I went home. When I finally came through the door I’d walked for one hour five minutes with only one real stop when I waited to pay for my paper. Not bad for a forty five minute training walk and I earned myself a few calories for my Sunday lunch too. I think I’ve also earned a little sit down in front of the fire this afternoon. The kitchen clean can wait.