Another beautiful day, despite again threatening rain. We walked 9 miles with 1650ft elevation gain (yesterday was 2100, so it’s hilly along the Welsh borders!) It was such a nice walk, mostly through or along woodland. We were welcomed into the paths of trees, and it’s always wonderful to be invited in. We started downhill right away, and the Offa’s Dyke Association has improved the path with things like boardwalks on the steeper sections. Much easier on these tough, muddy, loose stony hillsides. I saw this amazing tree that had fallen over and onto another tree, and then continued to grow holding onto it. I love the tenacity of trees. There were yew lined paths and garlic laced hillsides of white.
Out of the woods, the pastureland was full of sheep and views. And more rolling hills. Walking through almost knee high wet vegetation, we made a few wrong turns. With the amazing technology of gps and the path downloaded offline on my phone, we were able to find our way around farmhouses and through gates to get back on track.
We stopped for lunch in the Wye River town of Lower Redbrook, a lovely quiet place now with a perfect picnic spot by the river, but 200 years ago a busy tin mining and plating center doing a brisk trade with Europe. So many places I’ve walked through on this trip are quiet now, but 100 years ago, 200, 500 or 1000 years ago were hives of activity from trade, war, faith, agriculture. Things change, places change. It feels like the meadow-y pastures have been here forever, but they are here due to grazing sheep, and the brambles will take over when the practices of raising sheep end. We stopped to have a chat with a farmer (a hobbyist farmer, which many are nowadays) who was using an old scythe to cut the brambles back to manage the grasslands, and the sheep will come and do the rest. Wool is not the commodity of value anymore though, mutton and lamb-meat are the sheep’s destiny. And that will change, these hills will become the home and business of the next people’s needs. As I read interpretive signs that tell me what was here hundreds of years ago and offer graphics to help me picture that life, I wonder what is coming in a few hundred more. It’s a good walking meditation on the transient nature of life. And it reminds me of some of my dad’s favorite lines from Willam Blake:
‘He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise.’
Nothing lasts forever, no country, no person, no building, no language, no joy, no sadness. Live this moment. Every moment. It will lead you to the next, and the next, and thus make a fine life.
