We have been exploring the lanes around Killington Lake recently and I thought to myself I have never actually visited the tiny village of Killington, so I plotted a there and back route starting from where we left off last week.
The long descent to the village had Pete concerned about the return - I had intended our route to go beyond the village, but we decided to shorten it at the church marked on the map in the village. That turned out to be quite unusual and included the adjacent pele tower.
As it turned out Pete ascended in spritely fashion and nonstop so we extended the walk at the other end which you can detect if you follow the arrows on the map carefully. That extension took us past a pair of minatory notices on the edge of a wood with open access from the road. What "bio-security" refers to I have no idea, but it conjures up images of Porton Down, and as for "trapping foxes," that can presumably only lead to one conclusion - sickening.
It was only as I started writing this post I found that we had walked right through Killington village on 10th October 2013 and although I remember other parts of that walk, including the intimidating notices shown in the photo below, I had no memory of the village, and we must have missed the interesting church and pele tower,
Here is a link to the relevant post from 2013, the comments were entertaining.:
http://conradwalks.blogspot.com/2013/10/gone-fishing.html
Click first photo to see rest enlarged
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| From the summit before the long descent to the village |
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| Descending to Killington village - Pete pondering about the return climb |
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| The far gatepost is the trunk of an old tree |
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| Pele tower on left, church on right. The tower is in the process of conversion to a self catering holiday venue |
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| Pity I managed to cut off the right-hand side. This was a particularly colourful window even for stained glass |
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| This and below were together. The bio notice was there on the previous visit in Oct 2013 but the fox notice is new. I haven't heard of "trapping" foxes before. All of this just made me feel sick |
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| On a lighter note (subject, not photo) back at Café Ambio - note the crook |
That's a place I've never visited. Off the map.
ReplyDeleteI was impressed by your adaptability (ie, regarding road steepness) even if it wasn't, in the end, necessary. Also the one-upmanship of including "pele" (ah, the subtlety of the lower-case initial letter) without explanation. "But of course everyone knows..." hangs in the air implicitly.
ReplyDeleteBC - If you go to the post I posted a link to you will see a photo of a roadside crag in this area that may be of interest to you.
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RR - you credit me with subtlety that was not consciously applied, but I suppose all great artists, using that word generally, have many meanings interpreted in their works. Is there a word to describe the whole range of creative people other than artist which can be seen to refer its specific meaning when one wants to generalise?
Pete always says, and I agree, our outings are "not just about the walking..."
"Not consciously applied" perhaps; but I see you're not denying you were practising one-upmanship.
ReplyDeleteI find your second sentence virtually impenetrable. There is no sin in revising prose, you know; readers don't see the erasures, amendments, the second thoughts. And even if they did they should realise that such activity was in their best interests.
I agree wholeheartedly with Pete's judgment. It's a variant on what I've been saying about your walk-posts for many a year. Yet mostly you continue to avoid this other stuff which could be used to complement the visual aspects covered in your photos.
RR - Second sentence. I'll try again. I was asking if there is a more specific synonym for the word "artist" when it refers to the whole group of people practising painting, sculpture, writing, music etc? In my first sentence I used the word "artists" to mean that whole spectrum, but it could be interpreted just to refer to painters, but I couldn't come up with a suitable single word alternative.
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand your thing about the pele tower. It is a word that I think most people are familiar with and my dictionary gives alternative spellings: "peel" and "pele" and the use of the lower case p is as it should be.
I do try to include thoughtful comments, often at the expense of detailed descriptions of the walks, and sometimes only tenuously linked to the general theme, but hopefully giving readers ammunition to respond with comments. Ok, I know these inclusions are rarely of profound philosophical or intellectual nature but I shall keep trying.
Re: pele. This was what I guessed you would say (see above): "But of course everyone knows..."
ReplyDeleteThis is what you did say: "It is a word that I think most people are familiar with..."
Not I.
Theoretically "artist" should cover the waterfront (My dictionary: a person who practices an imaginative art such as painting or sculpture.) In practice it doesn't: I may be wrong but I don't see composers as artists, even though musicians may be. The answer is to avoid backing yourself into a situation that is not only dubious but unclear. There's no rule that says you have to find a single-word solution. One quick possibility: "those who exploit their imagination." If the need for repetition crops up invent a word, explain what you've done, and use it thereafter - eg, imaginist.
RR - As the "pele" was defined as a tower by the next word and it being next to a church, and there being photo further down I don't see there was any need to explain further - anybody sufficiently interested after that could use a dictionary as I have to do from time tot time on your blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your suggestions regarding "artist."
Interesting spot Killington. That pele tower was roofless until quite recently. Are pele towers a north-western speciality perhaps?
ReplyDeleteMark - From Wikipedia:
ReplyDelete"Peel towers are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, intended as watch towers where signal fires could be lit by the garrison to warn of approaching danger. "Wikipedia