24 January 2017
The icy cold continued into the week so, not wishing to loose any appendages to frostbite, I decided on a shorter walk than normal today. For a while I’ve been meaning to check out the cemetery at Quobb Lane and today seemed like the day for it. With the weather and the conditions underfoot fairly unpredictable, I’d plotted a few alternative circular routes so CJ and I could make a descision based on what we found. Continue reading Quobb Lane and Men of the Trees
21 January 2017
We keep saying we’re going to be parkrun tourists more often but we never quite get round to it. Not that there’s anything wrong with Southampton Common of course, it’s one of the biggest and best parkruns in the country after all. It’s nice to have a change once in a while though and to see other parks, even if it does mean getting up extra early on a Saturday morning and possibly getting lost. Anyhow, this week we did go to a different park, although not an entirely unfamiliar one.
17 January 2017
Every Saturday morning we drive up The Avenue to the Common for parkrun and, for several weeks now, we’ve commented on the broken drinking fountain on Asylum Green, the grassy verge in the centre of the two carriageways. Now, while we were deciding which route the Frontiersmen and their Remount horses would have taken to Portswood, I took the opportunity to take a photo of it. Continue reading The conclusion of the camp fire tales
17 January 2017
Before Christmas CJ and I took a walk that inadvertently led us past the Swaythling Remount Depot and we recently walked through North Stoneham Park where one of the Remount camps was. Looking for more information about the Remount Depot, I stumbled upon some entertaining ‘campfire yarns’ on The Legion of Frontiersmen of the Commonwealth website. Three tales told of stampedes when frontiersmen were driving as many as six hundred horses through the city. Today, I thought CJ and I would retrace some of their footsteps, as far as we could, and share their stories. Continue reading Following frontiersmen’s footsteps
8 January 2017
The first CC6 of the year was at Badger Farm, near Winchester. Despite a thick fog as we headed towards Winchester, there was no getting lost. This could be considered as something of a miracle given our track record. We both remembered walking through Badger Farm during the Winchester Half Marathon and the map told us the event was almost in sight of St Cross Hospital, divided from it by the railway line. Even so, finding the Sainsbury’s car park which also acted as the official race car park, was touch and go. When we did, I was delighted to see an open Starbucks. Continue reading Badger Farm, running in the fog
5 January 2017
Our little tour around the inside of The Bargate had been far shorter than CJ and I would have liked and it left us wanting more. Short of breaking into the rest of the building, which would have probably only resulted in us seeing the inside of a police cell, we decided to have a coffee instead. Normally this would mean a short walk to Costa on the High Street but, today, I had a better plan. Continue reading Old walls and Watermark
5 January 2017
With Commando now back at work and all the post Christmas and New Year clearing up done it was time to think about my first walk of the year. There were a host of possibilities but one stood out. While we were in Iceland CJ went for a wander into town on his own and discovered an art exhibition inside the Bargate. It isn’t every day you get the chance to see the most iconic symbol of our city from a new angle so he went inside. Only a small part of the building was open but it was still more than I had ever seen. Luckily, it turned out the art exhibition continued into the New Year so, today, I decided to check it out. Continue reading The Bargate, inside and out
December 2016
The Christmas period seemed to be one long whirl of parkruns, one after the other. The first was on Christmas Eve. England felt incredibly warm after Iceland, even though everyone else was shivering and complaining about the cold. It seemed odd to be getting up at the crack of dawn and actually seeing pink skies instead of darkness too. Continue reading The five parkruns of Christmas, almost
22 December 2016
Our time in Iceland was coming to a close. We hadn’t got back from our aurora watching adventure until the early hours of the morning and it was tempting to sleep in and have a late breakfast. The lure of one more run and walk in the snow was stronger though. Bleary eyed we stepped out of the hotel into the icy air. In any other country this would have been the crack of dawn. In Iceland though daybreak was still four hours or so away. Continue reading The last Icelandic saga
21 November 2016
Almost as soon as we got amongst the buildings the snow began to fall again. At first it was a mere sprinkling, pretty and soft as swansdown on our faces. Close to the bus station beside a trianglular park with a Christmas tree and some horse scuplptures we found the Icelandic Penis Museum. It seemed a strange topic for a museum but we didn’t really have the time or energy left to investigate further than the window. Continue reading More snow and Aurora hunting