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Making a ‘ewe’ friend at the top of Pen y Fan in Wales

Hello, hello, how’s it going?

Thank you so much for all the kind comments and messages about my last post. You’re all lovely and I’m really glad that I sent it out. Sometimes the things we dread the most turn out to be the best things for us, don’t they?

And hello and welcome to the 16 people who subscribed after reading my last post. 👋🏻 Thank you for joining our little growing walking and writing community. If you want to get a feel for what The Writer’s Walk is all about, there’s an archive of past editions on my Substack home page and I share how it started on my about page.

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Coming up on The Writer’s Walk

This edition is to let you know that I’m back in business and ready to go with more walks and writing prompts. So from Wednesday 4 October, we’ll be back to our usual schedule of 2 posts a month.

Coming up, we’ll be walking in the rain, walking around a museum and walking to find treasure. We’ll also be walking to music. Wait, did someone say playlist? 🎧 You betcha. I’ve been putting it together in various formats for about 15 years and it now has a new home on Spotify, so I’ll be sharing it with you when I send out that edition. Would it be cheesy to say ‘stay tuned’? Too late, I’ve said it anyway.

If it ain’t raining, it ain’t training

Looking further ahead – grabs crystal ball 🔮 – I want to do interviews, guest posts and joint adventures.

So if that sounds like your bag of trail mix and you fancy buddying up with me on an edition of The Writer’s Walk, or if you know someone with a fab walking story to share, I’d LOVE to hear from you. Please get in touch by either adding a comment or pinging me a message.

The response to my last edition also made me realise that some of you might find it helpful to meet up with other people who are experiencing loss. So I’ve been toying with the idea of running a gentle walk for anyone who wants to meet up and feel less alone with it all. There’d be no big agenda – this wouldn’t be formal therapy or counselling – just the chance to walk and talk with other people in a relaxed way.

I’d probably need to do it in London, simply because of all of the practicalities involved in organising a group walk. So if you’re interested in joining me for something like that then please get in touch. Then if we get enough interest – I’m thinking a small group of around 6 to 8 people – I’ll work on some dates, a location and a plan.

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Walking

There’s no walking from me this time, so here’s a handful of ideas from other places.

• World Wide Wander – this is a global day of wandering and wondering, taking place on Friday 29 September from sunrise to sunset. (That’s 8am to 8pm, UK time). It was founded ten years ago by David Pearl who set up Street Wisdom. It’s a virtual gathering with 6 events, spanning 6 continents, so that anyone can join from anywhere. I’m hoping to join in, so maybe I’ll see you on a Zoom walk soon.

• YHA Festival of Walking – this is happening right now and running until 19 October 2023. The YHA has put together some self-guided walks, and is running guided social walks, from many of its hostels in the UK. The guided walks are free but they’re encouraging people to make a donation to help them install defibrillators at every YHA hostel.

• This Morning Walk – in 2011 Libby DeLana decided to go for a walk every morning, no matter what. She’s written a book about it – Do Walk – and shares walking resources and inspiration on her website and Insta page. She also has a walking playlist on Spotify – and I swear I didn’t know that before I created mine. Great minds, eh?

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Reading

I wandered around the Barbican Conservatory at the weekend and saw the Cloud songs on the horizon installation by Indian sculptor Ranjani Shettar. It’s free to visit and is one of the few times the Barbican opens its conservatory doors to the public, so check it out if you’re in London. It’s on until March 2024.

Afterwards, I found myself in the gift shop where I stumbled upon In Praise of Paths by Torbjørn Ekelund. It’s an ode to walking by a writer who started walking everywhere after an epilepsy diagnosis meant he had to stop driving. I’m gripped by it and have barely put it down since I started reading it. Except to write this post, obvs.

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Watching

The Commute is a short film by Beau Miles. Setting off without food, water or shelter, he walked 90km to work, reflecting on the route and life along the way. My walk to work pales in comparison.

Hat tip to Feasts & Fables for sharing the film in their newsletter. And hat tip to Beau Miles for having such an excellent and appropriate name for a walker.

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Shoutouts

I’ve been bolstered by the kindness of strangers in many ways this year. So to ‘pay it forward’ here are some shoutouts. These people write newsletters I love and are clearly giving a lot of their time and goodwill to others along the way.

• Hurdling with Emily Ash Powell – Emily’s newsletter looks at how we get over the obstacles in our way – whether we put them there ourselves or we find them in our path. She interviews some really interesting people, sends out regular positive vibe checks and shares loads of great links. Oh, and did I mention there’s chocolate?

• Crocuses in the snow – I know about this newsletter thanks to a guest post Emily did with its author, Catriona Innes. It’s about grief and loss and whether we can get comfortable with it in all its many forms. Writing helps Catriona with her own grief, and in turn her writing helps others. Her newsletter came onto my radar at exactly the time when I needed it and maybe it’ll help some of you who’ve reached out to me since my last post. Thanks, Emily ❤️

• Encourage Meant – Feasts & Fables (JoJo and Barrie) believe that encouragement is a superpower and want to pass it on, which they do once a month with their Substack newsletter. They also send out their weekly Field Notes for Curious Minds newsletter, overflowing with inspiring photography, design, adventures, feasts and short films (see The Commute, above). Barrie generously offered me a one-to-one encouragement session recently and I left feeling refreshed, renewed and ready to push on with The Writer’s Walk in bigger and more meaningful ways. Thank you 🙏🏻

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And that’s it for now. I’m putting the finishing touches on the next ‘proper’ edition of The Writer’s Walk, so watch out for it as it’ll be pinging into your inboxes soon.

Happy walking and writing until then,

Sarah